-^ 


bV  4211  .G73  1904 

Greer,  David  Hummel  1,  1844 

1919. 
The  preacher  and  his  place 


THE    PREACHER    AND 
HIS    PLACE 


THE    PREACHER    AND 
HIS    PLACE 


THE  LYMAN  BEECHER  LECTURES  ON  PREACH- 
ING, DELIVERED  AT   YALE   UNIVERSITY 
IN  THE  MONTH  OF  FEBRUARY,  iSgs 


BY 

REV.  DAVID    H.  GREER,  D.D. 

RECTOR   OF  ST.    BARTHOLOMEW'S   CHURCH,    NEW  YORK  CITY 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

189s 


Copyright,  1895, 
By  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.  S.  A. 


PREFACE 


TN  looking  over  the  Lectui-es  wliich  are 
contained  in  this  Volume,  with  a  view 
to  their  publication,  I  was  strongly  tempted 
to  recast  them.  Their  style,  as  will  be 
seen,  is  that  of  direct  addi-ess,  wliich  for 
those  who  heard  them  was  perhaps  the 
most  appropriate,  but  for  those  who  may 
read  them,  it  is  not,  to  say  the  least,  such 
as  I  should  choose.  For  this  reason,  there- 
fore, I  was  disposed  to  change,  not  their 
substance,  but  their  form.  I  soon  found, 
however,  that  the  one  involved  the  other, 
and  that  it  was  not  easy,  if  indeed 
possible,  to  change  the  phrasing  of 
the  thought  without  changing  also  the 
thought;  and  that  was  something  which 
I  felt  I  had  no  right  to  do ;  neither  had  I 


2  PREFACE 

the  desire  to  do  it.  The  Lectures,  there- 
fore, are  printed  just  as  they  were  deliv- 
ered, in  the  hope  that  if  they  were  of 
any  value  to  the  hearer,  they  may  prove 
to  be  not  altogether  valueless  to  the 
reader,  in  helping  liim  to  determine  the 
distinctive  place  and  work  of  the  Chi'is- 
tian  minister  in  the  economy  of  Modern 
Life. 

DAVm  H.  GREER. 

St.  Bartholomew's  Day, 
August  24,  1895. 


CONTENTS 


♦ 

Paoe 

The  Preacher  and  the  Past    ....  7 

The  Preacher  and  the  Present   ...  39 

The  Preacher  and  his  Message    ...  71 

The  Preacher  and  other  Messages      .  105 
The  Preacher  preparing  his  Message: 

General  Preparation 137 

The  Preacher  preparing  his  Message: 

Special  Preparation 169 

The  Preacher  and  the  Parish      .     .     .  203 
The  Preacher  making  the  most  of  Him- 
self       237 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE   PAST 


THE  PREACHER   AND    THE   PAST 

TN  accepting  the  invitation  with  which  I 
had  been  honored  to  deliver  this  course 
of  lectures,  I  felt  very  keenly  the  embar- 
rassment of  putting  myself  in  the  position 
of  the  last  speaker  upon  a  subject  wliich 
had  been  already  very  fully  traversed,  and 
in  regard  to  which  it  would  not  be  easy 
for  me  to  say  anytliing  that  had  not  been 
more  ably  and  better  said  before.  There 
was,  however,  this  mitigating  and  reliev- 
ing circumstance :  when  the  other  lec- 
turers spoke  and  delivered  themselves  of 
their  burden,  I  was  not  in  the  audience, 
and  therefore  did  not  hear  them ;  neither, 
although  their  deliverances  have  been  pub- 
lished, have  I  had  the  privilege  (except  to 
a  very  limited  extent)  of  reading  them  in 
print.  While,  therefore,  I  may  repeat  in 
part  what  has  been  already  said,  I  shall  be 
ignorant  of  it,  and  the  ignorance  will  give 
me  boldness,  or   at   least   freedom  in  my 


8  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

utterance,  and  will  help  to  relieve  tlie 
embarrassment  which  otherwise  I  might 
feel. 

But  there  was  another  embarrassment, 
proceeding,  not  from  the  sameness,  but 
from  the  bigness  of  the  subject.  For  it  is 
a  big  subject.  It  is  almost  boundless  in  its 
bigness,  and  would  be  easier  to  treat  if  it 
were  smaller.  In  my  early  schoolboy  days 
it  was,  I  remember,  one  of  my  appointed 
and  somewhat  di'eaded  duties  to  furnish  an 
essay  every  week  upon  a  topic  of  my  own 
selection.  In  the  attempt  to  discharge 
that  constantly  recurring  and  not  welcome 
task,  I  soon  came  to  the  end  of  all  think- 
able topics,  and  did  not  know  what  topic 
to  treat  and  write  on  next.  Presently, 
however,  I  hit  upon  a  device  which  seemed 
at  the  time  both  felicitous  and  fruit- 
ful. I  tried  to  find  a  topic  so  generous 
and  large  that  it  might  be  continued  from 
week  to  week  without  any  fear  of  exhaust- 
ing it;  and  I  can  recall  now  with  what 
lively  satisfaction  I  coined  the  fruitful 
phrase,  as  then  it  seemed,  and  selected 
for  my  theme,  "The  World  and  its 
Contents."  That  lively  satisfaction,  how- 
ever, did  not  long  live,  and  I  soon   dis- 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE   PAST  9 

covered,  wliat  in  other  waj-s,  and  with 
increasing  fuhiess  of  realization,  I  have 
been  discovering  ever  since,  and  not  always 
to  my  comfort,  that  it  is  "  the  narrow  chim- 
ney which  makes  the  best  draught,"  and 
that  to  have  a  theme  too  big  is  tantamount 
almost  to  having  no  theme  at  all. 

Something  like  that  is  the  feeling  which 
I  experience  now.  My  theme  is  too  big. 
There  seems  to  be  no  end  and  no  begin- 
ning to  it.  It  is  an  all-out-of-doors  theme, 
like  "  The  World  and  its  Contents,"  or  the 
universe  and  its  contents.  For  the  work 
of  the  ministry  touches  and  includes  with- 
in its  compass  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  things,  in  the  heavens  above,  and  the 
earth  beneath,  and  the  waters  under  tlie 
earth,  and  in  the  soul  of  man.  It  deals  with 
things  human  ;  it  deals  with  things  divine  ; 
things  physical,  things  metaphysical ;  things 
natural,  things  supernatural ;  mental,  moral 
and  spiritual.  In  at  least  the  form  of  the 
speech,  if  not  the  speech  itself,  which  Ruth 
addressed  to  Naomi,  it  says  to  all  these 
things  :  "  Where  you  go  I  go  ;  where  you 
lodge  I  lodge ;  your  interests  are  my 
interests ;  your  work  is  my  work ;  your 
truth  is  my  truth,  and  your  God  is  my 


10         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

God."  The  subject,  I  say,  is  very  big, 
and  with  the  consciousness  that  I  can  start 
almost  anywhere,  and  proceed  in  almost 
any  direction,  it  is  difficult  to  start  and 
proceed.  I  must,  however,  start  some- 
where, and  perhaps  I  can  do  no  better  than 
to  try  to  put  myself  in  your  place,  young 
gentlemen,  and  start  where  you  start,  or 
where  presently  you  will  start,  when  you 
have  taken  your  ordination  vows  and  en- 
tered upon  your  work.  And  where,  then, 
shall  you  start?  And  how,  then,  shall 
you  start  ?  And  what,  then,  shall  you  be  ? 
Ministers  of  Jesus  Clu-ist  going  forth  to 
preach  to  the  world  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  to  build  up  in  the  world  the 
Kingdom  of  Jesus  Clu-ist,  and  to  reconcile 
the  world  tlirough  Jesus  Clu-ist  to  God? 
Yes,  that  will  be  your  work;  that,  I  am 
sure,  will  be  your  ambition:  and  a  great 
and  noble  work,  and  worthy  ambition  it  is. 
But  in  the  doing  of  that  work,  and  in 
the  fulfilling  of  that  ambition,  there  is, 
or  there  will  be,  a  limitation  upon  you, 
voluntarily  imposed,  to  be  sure,  but  still 
a  limitation;  namely,  a  theological  limita- 
tion. You  will  be  bound  by  forms  of 
faith,  and  to  those  forms  of  faith  —  as  the 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PAST         11 

religious  organization  which  equips  and 
sends  you  fortli  has  received  them  —  you 
must  be  loyal  and  true.  That,  I  say,  is 
the  way  in  which  you  will  presently  start, 
with  the  self-imposed  limitation  of  a  theo- 
logical subscription  upon  you. 

Let  me,  then,  start  as  you  start,  and  in 
this  lecture  consider  what  that  limitation 
is ;  what  it  means  and  implies ;  and  what, 
in  my  judgment,  it  does  iiot  mean  and 
imply.  That  is  a  question  which  the 
Clu'istian  world  to-day  seems  to  be  very 
seriously  considering.  How  can  the  new 
knowledge  which  has  been  brought  to  light 
by  the  spiiit  of  modern  inquiry  be  recon- 
ciled with  the  old  knowledge  which  is 
reflected  or  expressed  in  the  early  forms 
of  faith  ?  Can  it  be  reconciled  at  all  ?  Is 
any  reconciliation  possible  ?  Is  the  Cliiis- 
tian  minister  free  to  accept  that  new  knowl- 
edge, or  free  even  to  consider  it?  Is  he, 
with  reference  to  it,  an  independent  man  ? 
Some  persons  maintain  that  he  is  not;  and 
that  while  the  student  of  science  is  free, 
and  the  student  of  philosophy  is  free,  the 
student  of  theology  is  not  free,  or  not  free 
at  least  when  he  has  been  ordained  and 
become  a  Clu-istian  minister.     Then,  it  is 


12         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

said,  he  is  fettered  and  bound,  and  must 
teach,  not  what  he  thinks,  but  what  the 
Church  which  has  ordained  him  thinks. 
And  that  is  true.  But  it  is  not,  in  my 
judgment,  true  in  the  way  in  which  it  is 
sometimes  said  to  be  true.  In  what  sense, 
then,  is  it  true,  and  in  what  sense  is  it  not 
true?  It  is  only  right  and  proper  that, 
standing  as  you  do  upon  the  threshold 
of  the  Clu-istian  ministry,  you  should  con- 
sider and  settle  that  question,  and  that 
before  you  go  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the 
present,  you  should  try  to  ascertain  what 
your  relation  is  to  the  past,  and  to  what 
extent  you  are  fettered  and  held  in  check 
by  the  past,  and  your  freedom  of  utter- 
ance is  impaired.  That  is  the  topic  which 
I  will  ask  you  to  consider  in  this  lecture. 
The  Preacher  and  the  Past.  Stated  in 
other  words,  the  topic  or  the  question  is 
this:  "What  is  involved  in  a  theological 
subscription?  What  does  it  mean,  and 
what  does  it  not  mean  ?  " 

I  remark  in  the  first  place,  in  attempting 
to  answer  that  question,  that  theology  as 
I  apprehend  it  is  not  a  stationary,  but 
a  progressive  and  constantly  advancing 
science.     It  is  different  now  in  some  re- 


THE  PREACnER  AND    THE  PAST         13 

spects  from  wliat  it  formerly  was ;  and  it 
is  not  noAV  in  all  respects  what  it  will  be 
hereafter.  Trnth  itself,  subjectively  con- 
sidered, is  of  course  a  fixed  and  definite 
quantity.  It  is  always  one  and  the  same. 
But  the  knowledge  of  truth  is  not.  That 
is  a  variable  quantity,  and  is  at  one  time 
greater  and  more  than  at  anotlier  time. 
And  this  applies  to  all  truth  and  all  kno^^d- 
edge ;  whether  it  be  the  laiowledge  of  the 
truth  of  God  in  nature,  or  whether  it  be 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth  of  God  in 
Christ.  And  just  as  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth  concerning  electricity,  or  heat,  or 
light,  or  gravity,  is  greater  now  than  it  was, 
so  is  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  concern- 
ing Jesus  Christ.  Jesus  Christ  Himself  is 
of  coui'se  the  same ;  and  the  truth  tliat  we 
find  in  Him  now  has  been  in  Him  always. 
It  has  been  always  in  Him,  but  not  always 
found  in  Him.  It  has  been  always  true, 
but  not  always  known,  or  it  has  been 
kno^vn  only  in  part-,  and  as  it  will  be  here- 
after known  only  in  part.  For  while  there 
may  come  a  time  when  we  can  say  we 
know  all  the  truth  in  things,  there  never 
will  come  a  time  when  we  can  say  we  know 
all  the  truth  in  Him,  who  was  before  all 


14         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

things,  by  whom  all  things  were  made, 
and  without  whom  was  not  anything  made 
that  was  made.  Life  in  Him  is  limitless. 
Truth  in  Him  is  boundless.  We  do  not 
know  it  all ;  we  cannot  know  it  all ;  and 
when  Ave  say  we  do,  or  when  we  draw  the 
line  at  the  fourth  or  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, and  say  that  the  knowledge  of  Christ 
was  then  complete  and  final,  \vith  nothing 
more  to  be  added,  we  are  to  that  extent 
denying  Christ,  or  denying  the  God  in 
Clu'ist ;  and  the  faith  wMch  believes  that 
any  doctrinal  statement  has  set  Him  fully 
forth,  is  faith  in  Christ  as  man.  It  may 
call  itself  evangelical;  it  may  call  itself 
catholic :  it  often  does ;  but  it  is  neither. 
It  is  an  implicit  negation  of  the  evan- 
gelical faith,  and  militates  against  that 
catholic  creed  of  the  Church  which  it  seeks 
to  uphold  and  maintain.  That  creed  de- 
clares that  Christ  was  more  than  man,  was 
God;  and  God,  the  Infinite,  the  Absolute, 
the  Eternal,  is  always  beyond  the  limit  of 
Suman  apprehension,  is  always  more  than 
the  knowledge,  be  it  ever  so  much,  of  man. 
When  we  say  that  something  is  boundless, 
we  must  not  proceed  to  bound  it.  If  we  do, 
we  deny  what  we  affirm,  and  destroy  what 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PAST         15 

we  build.  And  when  we  declare  in  one 
breath  that  Jesus  Christ  was  God,  or  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  then  in  the  next 
declare  that  all  that  is  in  Him  is  known, 
we  deny  what  we  affirm,  and  destroy  what 
we  build,  and  declare  that  He  was  not 
God. 

We  read  of  certain  persons  who  in 
Christ's  day  tried  to  shut  up  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  aofainst  those  who  were  seekino- 
to  enter.  The  effort  was  not  successful, 
nor  will  it  ever  be.  The  kingdom  of  man 
we  may  shut  up ;  we  may  traverse  it  all 
and  say,  "It  goes  no  further  than  this; 
and  that  here  is  where  it  stops."  But  the 
Kingdom  of  God  we  cannot  shut  up,  and 
just  because  it  is  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
There  are  treasures  in  it  which  we  never 
find ;  and  heights  we  never  scale ;  and 
deptlis  we  never  fathom ;  and  regions  we 
never  explore.  It  is  alwaj'S  open  bej'ond 
us,  and  its  gates  we  can  never  close.  And 
if  in  Jesus  Cliiist  we  see  a  King  who 
is  God,  and  in  His  truth  a  kingdom  which 
is  the  Kingdom  of  God,  we  cannot  sa}', 
"  Thus  far  and  no  farther  does  it  go."  We 
cannot  shut  it  up ;  or  if  we  do,  we  shut 
it  up  as  a  Kingdom  of  God,  and  make  it 


16         THE  PREACHER  AND  II IS  PLACE 

something  less.  Because,  therefore,  we 
believe  that  Jesus  Clnist  was  God,  with 
the  Infinite  in  Him,  we  also  believe  that  no 
doctrinal  symbol  of  the  Cliristian  Church 
in  the  past  is  or  can  be  the  full  expression 
of  Him.  It  may  be  true  as  far  as  it  goes, 
but  it  does  not  go  far  enough.  It  does 
not  go  as  far  as  He  goes.  There  is  in 
Clirist  something  more  than  what  it  sees 
and  states.  That  sometliing  more  in  Him 
has  been  gradually  coming  out,  with  fuller 
and  larger  disclosure  to  the  apprehension 
of  man.  We  cannot  shut  it  up,  nor  pre- 
vent it  from  coming  out.  Men  have  tried 
to  prevent  it,  and  time  and  again  have 
said,  "  Now  we  know  it  all ;  the  form  of 
Cliristian  doctrine  is  now  complete,  final, 
there  is  nothing  more  to  be  added ;  —  there 
is  notliing  more  to  be  said,  and  contro- 
versy is  ended."  But  it  was  not  ended ; 
and  it  is  not  ended  yet.  It  has  been  going 
on ;  it  is  going  on,  and  it  will  hereafter  go 
on.  Nothing  has  stopped  it;  nothing  can 
stop  it ;  and  more  and  more  Avill  the  truth 
of  God  in  Jesus  Clirist  be  apprehended 
by  man. 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.    So  far  as 
a  creed  or  doctrine  is  a  statement  of  fact. 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PAST  17 

such,  for  instance,  as  the  Apostles'  Creed,  it 
is  of  course  final.  Fact  is  fact,  and  always 
remains  fact;  and  the  Creed  which  ex- 
presses fact  in  connection  with  Jesus  Christ, 
as  the  fact  of  His  birth,  for  instance,  or  life, 
or  death,  or  resurrection,  is  to  that  extent 
stationary.  But  the  interpretation  of  the 
fact,  or  of  the  significance  of  the  fact,  that 
is  not  stationary.  One  age  apprehends  it 
in  part,  and  another  age  apprehends  it  in 
part.  The  different  apprehensions  are  not 
contradictory,  but  supplemental.  Each  age 
looks  from  its  own  point  of  view,  and 
through  the  medium  of  its  own  atmosphere, 
and  sees  something  new  in  Christ,  —  not 
something  new  in  fact,  but  something  new 
in  the  meaning  and  application  of  fact.  It 
is  vision  as  it  were  from  a  valley,  with 
mountains  steep  and  high,  sloping  up  on 
either  side  towards  the  truth  of  God  in 
Christ ;  and  it  is  only  the  one  little  section 
of  the  great  and  broad  expanse  imme- 
diately above  that  any  one  age  can  see, 
that  any  one  man  can  see,  or  any  one  set 
of  men.  St.  Paul  looks  up  from  the  val- 
ley with  clear  and  open  eye,  and  the  doc- 
trine of  faith  is  passing.  "  By  faith  a  man 
is  justified  without  the  deeds  of  the  law." 
2 


18         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

St.  James  looks  up  from  the  valley  with 
an  eye  equally  clear,  and  the  doctrine  of 
works  is  passing.  "By  works  a  man  is 
justified,  and  not  by  faith  only."  St.  John 
at  the  close  of  the  century,  when  Jerusa- 
lem has  fallen,  and  the  stroke  of  doom  is 
impending  over  imperial  Rome,  —  St.  John 
looks  up  from  the  valley,  and  the  doctrine 
of  judgment  is  passing. 

So  tliroughout  all  the  subsequent  his- 
tory of  the  Clu-istian  Church.  The  various 
observations  which  at  times  it  has  made  of 
the  truth  of  God  in  Christ  we  may  and  do 
accej)t;  but  not  as  the  observation  of  all 
the  truth  in  Clnist.  They  are  partial,  frag- 
mentary, limited,  and  do  not  express  it  all, 
and  cannot  express  it  all.  They  are  good 
as  far  as  they  go,  and  true  as  far  as  they 
go ;  but  they  do  not  go  to  the  end  of  the 
truth  of  God  in  Christ.  There  is  no  end. 
It  is  endless ;  it  is  boundless  ;  it  is  infinite  ; 
and  more  and  more  to  every  age  it  has 
been  coming  out,  and  more  and  more  to 
every  age  it  has  been  unfolding  itself. 

What  then  should  be  the  attitude  of  the 
person  who  believes  in  the  gradual  unfold- 
ing of  the  truth  of  God  in  Clnist,  towards 
an  ancient  doctrinal  symbol  ?     He  may  ac- 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  FAST         19 

eept  it  fully,  unequivocally,  and  without 
any  reserve ;  and  if  he  accepts  it  at  all, 
he  ought,  I  think,  to  accept  it  in  that  man- 
ner. But  he  does  not  and  cannot  accept 
it  as  a  statement  which  is  exhaustive.  He 
does  not  and  cannot  subscribe  to  it  as  some- 
tldng  complete  and  final.  What  then  does 
he  do  ?  What  ought  he  to  do  ?  Ought  he 
to  repudiate  and  reject  it  ?  No,  not  neces- 
sarily. Ought  he  to  try  to  change  and 
revise  it?  No,  not  necessarily.  Ought 
he  to  try  by  some  clever  process  of  inter- 
pretation to  read  into  it  a  meaning  —  some 
new  and  modern  meaning  —  which  it  does 
not  legitimately  bear,  and  was  not  intended 
to  bear,  thus  i)utting  new  wine  into  old 
bottles,  and  new  cloths  into  old  garments, 
and  making  i)atchwoik  of  them  ?  No ; 
that,  it  seems  to  me,  is  not  ingenuous.  I 
will  not  say  it  is  not  honest,  for  honesty 
applies  to  motive,  and  the  motive  in  such 
a  case  is,  I  am  sure,  good  ^  but  the  method 
I  think  is  bad.  What  then  does  he  do,  or 
what  should  he  do  ?  He  should  ascertain 
in  full  or  in  part  the  purpose  for  which 
that  doctrinal  symbol  was  oiiginally  fash- 
ioned and  di'awn,  and  then  proceed  to  in- 
quire whether  he  can  indorse  and  approve 


20         THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

that  purpose.  If  he  can,  then,  although 
the  symbol  in  its  outward  form  may  be 
faulty,  he  is  not  called  upon,  in  my  judg- 
ment, to  reject  it,  nor  even  to  change  and 
revise  it.  Let  me  illustrate :  and  as  I  am 
more  familiar  with  the  doctrinal  symbols 
of  the  Episcopal  Church,  let  me  find  my 
illustration  there ;  and  because  of  their  ad- 
mitted faultiness  in  some  respects  let  me 
find  it  in  those  doctrinal  symbols  which 
are  usually  designated  as  the  "  Thirty-nine 
Articles,"  and  which  are  in  many  respects 
like  the  other  doctrinal  symbols  of  the 
period  of  the  Reformation. 

Those  Articles,  as  every  student  knows, 
were  put  forth  by  their  framers  as  a  strong 
and  vigorous  protest  against  many  of  the 
teacliings  supposed  to  be  erroneous  of  the 
Church  of  Rome.  At  the  time  of  the  Re- 
formation those  teachings  had  been  re- 
nounced and  tlrrown  off  by  the  Anglican 
Church ;  and  in  order  to  keep  them  from 
coming  back  into  her  fold  again,  those  doc- 
trinal barriers  were  erected.  That  is  the 
way  in  which  they  came  to  be.  That  is 
their  meaning  and  purpose.  Now,  as  long 
as  we  sympathize  with  that  purpose,  and 
believe  that  it  is  our  duty  to  protest  against 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PAST         21 

those  doctrinal  teachings  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  it  would  be  both  unwise  and  unne- 
cessary to  remove  those  doctrinal  Ijarriers. 
And  yet,  as  is  generally  admitted  witli 
reference  to  other  matters  which  did  not 
enter  into  and  constitute  a  part  of  the  con- 
troversy of  that  time,  those  Articles  are 
very  imperfect. 

The  Sixth  Article  says,  for  instance, 
"  Holy  Scripture  consists  of  all  those  books 
of  whose  authority  thei'e  was  never  any 
doubt  in  the  Church."  And  then  it  pro- 
ceeds to  enumerate  the  sixty-six  books 
which  we  have  in  our  Bible  to-day.  Now, 
modern  scholarship  has  shown  it  to  be 
a  fact,  which  was  not  known  then,  but 
which  now  no  one  dreams  of  disputing, 
that  the  autliority  of  some  of  those  books 
in  our  Bible  was  for  a  long  time  doubted 
in  the  Cliristian  Church,  and  that  the  doubt 
M'as  not  wholly  removed  until  the  fourth  or 
fifth  century.  If,  therefore,  we  accept  the 
fu'st  part  of  the  Article,  wliich  says  that 
"  Holy  Scripture  consists  of  all  those  books 
of  whose  authority  there  was  never  any 
doubt  in  the  Clmrch,"  we  cannot  witliout 
stultifying  ourselves  accept  the  second  part 
of  the  Article,  which  sa3^s  that  the  Bible 


22    THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

consists  of  the  sixty-six  books  which  are  in 
it  now.  But  what  was  the  purpose  of  the 
Article  ?  To  determine  the  scope  and  limit 
of  the  Scriptural  canon  ?  Yes ;  but  at  the 
same  time  to  protest  against  the  attempted 
introduction  into  our  Protestant  Bible  of 
those  Apocryphal  books,  whose  authority 
was  coming  to  be  recognized  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  and  wliich  to-day  are 
found  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Bible.  With 
that  purpose  we  sympathize ;  at  least  I  sup- 
pose we  do,  and  therefore  we  do  not  wish 
to  have  the  Article  removed  wliich  de- 
clares and  expresses  that  purpose.  Faulty 
though  it  is,  we  can  and  do  indorse  it. 
But  let  us  not,  when  we  know  that  it  was 
intended  for  one  thing,  apply  it  to  some- 
thing else  which  did  not  come  into  the 
range  of  tlie  purpose  for  whicli  the  Article 
was  fi'amed. 

And  so  with  reference  to  other  doctrinal 
symbols  which  we  have  inherited  from  the 
past.  Some  of  tliem,  to  be  sure,  like  the 
early  creeds  of  Christendom,  are  on  a  much 
liigher  plane  than  those  which  I  have  been 
considering.  They  are  Ecumenical  sym- 
bols, and  received  the  sanction  of  Christen- 
dom at  large  ;  while  these  are  but  provincial 


Tfin  PREACHER  AND    THE  PAST         23 

symbols,  and  received  the  sanction  of  only 
a  part  of  Christendom.  But  the  method 
of  interpretation  is  the  same  in  both  cases. 
We  must  not  try  to  evade  them,  or  twist 
them,  or  pervert  tliem,  or  to  make  them 
yield  a  meaning  tliey  were  not  intended  to 
yield.  Our  aim  should  be  to  ascertain  the 
purpose  for  which  the}'  were  framed,  and 
our  indorsement  of  them  should  be  simply 
an  indorsement  of  that  purpose,  and  should 
not  be  made  to  apply  to  purposes  to  which 
the  symbols  themselves  were  not  intended 
to  apply. 

And  what  is  true  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
past  is  true  also  of  the  practices  of  the 
past.  Let  me  illustrate  f uither :  In  an  age 
when  force  and  violence  were  more  prev- 
alent in  human  society  than  they  arc  now, 
there  were  men  in  the  Christian  Church, 
brave  and  strong,  who  banded  themselves 
together  into  a  society  which  taught  and 
enforced  the  doctrine  of  unquestioning  and 
implicit  obedience  to  authority.  Monasti- 
cism  in  its  day  was  good,  was  needed.  It 
did  a  righteous  work,  and  that  righteous 
work  we  indorse ;  but  we  will  not  go  back 
to  monasticism.  At  a  time  when  the  lax- 
ity of  public  sentiment  had  almost  legal- 


2-4        THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

ized  and  sanctioned  a  kind  of  practical 
polygamy  and  the  most  hideous  and  re- 
volting excesses,  and  had  produced  in 
society,  and  to  some  extent  in  the  Clii'istian 
Church  and  ministry,  an  unbridled  moral 
corruption,  there  were  men  in  the  Christian 
Church,  brave  and  strong,  who  took  upon 
themselves  before  God  a  vow  of  perpetual 
chastity.  Celibacy  in  its  day  was  good, 
was  needed.  It  did  a  righteous  work,  and 
that  righteous  work  we  indorse ;  but  we 
will  not  go  back  to  celibacy.  At  a  time 
when  the  Catholic  Church  for  its  own  mer- 
cenary purposes  was  trafficking  in  good 
works  and  selling  out  indulgences  to  the 
people,  it  was  not  untimely  or  unneedful 
that  a  man  of  strong  individuality,  like 
John  Calvin,  should  arise,  making  promi- 
nent again  before  everything  else  the  doc- 
trine of  the  divine  decrees,  declaring  that 
the  salvation  of  men  was  entirely  inde- 
pendent of  works,  their  own  or  others',  and 
was  determined  solely  by  the  sovereign 
purpose  and  predestination  of  God;  thus 
cutting  up  the  Romish  doctrine  of  indul- 
gences by  the  roots.  Calvinism  in  its  day 
was  good,  was  needed.  It  did  a  righteous 
work,  and  that  righteous  work  we  indorse. 


THE  PREACHER   AND    THE  PAST         25 

But,  it  is  not  necessary,  some  of  iis  think, 
to  go  back  to  Calvinism. 

And  so  I  say  with  reference  to  other  be- 
liefs and  practices  of  the  Christian  Church 
in  the  past.  In  order  to  understand  them 
we  must  know  something  of  what  they 
were  trying  to  do,  and  of  the  strength  and 
character  of  the  inimical  forces  against 
which  they  were  fighting.  Who  can  under- 
stand the  tactics  of  a  military  commander 
without  understanding  something  of  the 
ground  on  which  he  is  fighting,  and  of  the 
difficulties  which  he  encounters,  and  of 
the  army  arrayed  against  him  ?  We  judge 
of  his  conduct,  not  in  the  abstract,  and  up 
as  it  were  in  the  air,  but  down  on  the 
ground,  the  earth,  and  with  reference  to 
the  particular  exigencies  of  that  particular 
time  and  that  particular  fight.  Was  it 
right  and  good  in  its  aim  ?  Was  it  right 
and  good  in  its  purpose?  Did  the  com- 
mander do  the  best  he  could  with  the 
forces  at  his  command  ?  Perhaps  at  another 
time,  and  in  another  conflict,  and  facing  a 
different  foe,  he  would  proceed  in  a  differ- 
ent manner,  would  occupy  a  more  advan- 
tageous position  on  the  field  of  battle,  and 
would  have  besides  a  better  equipment  to 


2G         THE  PRE  AC  II KR  AND  HIS  PLACE 

iight  with.  So,  too,  with  reference  to  reli- 
gious beliefs  and  symbols  which  have  come 
to  us  from  the  past.  They  are  the  symbols, 
many  of  them,  of  an  earnest  theological 
warfare  on  the  part  of  men  who  were  strug- 
gling to  apprehend  and  defend  the  truth. 
They  are  the  weapons  with  which  they 
fought,  with  which  they  went  out  —  those 
old  sturdy  and  doughty  defenders  of  the 
Clnistian  faith  — •  to  meet  and  do  battle 
with  the  enemy;  and  they  fought  hard 
and  well.  They  gave  no  quarter :  they 
made  no  compromise.  They  fought  to  kill 
and  destroy,  and  they  did  kill  and  destroy ; 
and  many  a  rampart  have  they  taken,  and 
mau}^  a  stronghold  razed.  And  we  to-daj- 
are  living  purer  and  freer  lives,  and  breath- 
ing larger  liberties,  because  of  what  they 
did,  and  of  the  way  in  which  they  fouglit. 
Surely  they  could  not  have  fought  more 
bravely  or  more  truly  than  they  did.  God 
give  us  the  courage  which  they  had !  But 
surely,  too,  if  they  were  living  now,  they 
would  fight  in  a  somewhat  different  man- 
ner. They  would  find,  I  believe,  different 
and,  in  some  respects,  better  weapons  to 
fight  with  :  a  wider  critical  knowledge  ;  a 
better  critical  equipment;  a  finer  critical 


Tin:  PREACHER  AND    THE  PAST         27 

insight ;  a  larger  field  to  move  on ;  and  dif- 
ferent foes  to  encounter.  But  did  the}' 
do,  not  what  was  ideally  best,  but  what 
was  best  in  the  circumstances  ?  Was  their 
aim  good,  and  their  purpose  ?  Do  we  sym- 
pathise with  that  purpose  ?  Do  we  think 
it  right  and  true  ?  If  we  do,  then  we  ac- 
cept the  doctrinal  form  or  symbol  in  which 
it  is  expressed,  "  Not  as  a  barrier  in  the 
way  of  progress,  but  as  a  badge  of  victory 
in  some  hard-fought  battle  of  the  past." 
We  are  not  called  upon,  as  another  has 
aptly  phrased  it,  to  commit  "  retrospective 
suicide "  in  our  loyalty  to  the  present, 
neither  are  we  called  upon  to  commit  pre- 
sent suicide  in  our  loyalty  to  the  past. 

There  are  two  things  which  the  man  who 
looks  uj)on  the  Christian  religion  in  tlie 
light  of  its  historical  development  will  not 
be  likely  to  do,  two  mistakes  which  he  will 
not  be  likely  to  make.  First,  he  will  not 
lightly  throw  off  the  past,  but  will  stand 
upon,  and  believe  in,  and  1)e  strengthened 
by  the  past;  saying,  like  Dante's  pilgrim, 
as  he  faces  the  unknown  future,  "•  I  jour- 
neyed on  o'er  that  lonely  steep,  the  hinder 
foot  still  firmer ; "  he  will  not  lightly 
throw  off  the  past.     And,  second,  he  will 


28        THE  PREACHER   AND  HIS  PLACE 

not  be  slavishly  bound  by  it.  He  will  look 
uj)on  the  present,  not  as  detached  from, 
but  as  growing  out  of,  the  past,  as  the  man 
grows  from  the  cliild ;  and  he  will  go  for- 
ward into  the  future,  not  fettered,  but 
equipped ;  believing,  not  in  a  God  of  con- 
fusion, but  in  a  God  of  order,  who  has  been 
working  in  the  past,  is  working  in  the  pre- 
sent, and  will  continue  to  work  in  the 
future ;  and,  like  a  well-instructed  scribe, 
he  will  bring  forth  from  the  inexhaustible 
treasure-house  of  the  Christian  religion 
things  both  new  and  old. 

The  Cluistian  Church  has  not  yet  appre- 
hended all  the  truth  that  is  in  Jesus  Christ, 
for,  as  I  have  said,  it  is  an  infinite  quan- 
tity, and  embodied  in  an  infinite  person- 
ality, and  she  must  continue  to  search  for 
the  truth ;  and  when  she  stops  the  search 
she  will  suffer  loss  in  power,  and  her  vital- 
ity will  wane.  "  I  think,"  says  John  Locke, 
in  writing  to  his  young  friend  Anthony 
Collins,  "  that  I  am  now  beginning  to  see 
the  truth  in  full  and  perfect  form,  and  that 
I  shall  not  have  to  search  for  it  much 
longer.  But  this,"  he  adds  significantly, 
"  is  at  the  end  of  my  days."  Ah,  yes,  the 
old  philosopher's  life  was  waning  and  pass- 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PAST         29 

ing  away,  and  this  was  the  sign  of  it ;  ceas- 
ing to  search,  and  therefore  beginning  to 
die.  So  will  it  be  with  the  Christian  Church. 
Ceasing  to  search  for  the  truth  of  God  in 
Jesus  Clmst,  her  redeeming  power  in 
society  and  lier  quickening  force  will  fail ; 
and  when  she  thinks  she  has  found  it  all, 
she  will  begin  to  die !  But  she  will  not 
die.  She  will  live.  And,  searchino;  more 
and  more  for  the  truth  of  God  in  Christ, 
slie  will  more  abundantly  live ;  will  more 
fruitful  and  vigorous  become ;  more  beau- 
tiful in  her  form,  more  helpful  in  her 
worsliip,  more  useful  in  her  work,  more 
attractive  in  her  teaching,  more  compre- 
hensive in  her  scojDe. 

Christian  theology  then,  young  gentle- 
men, is  not  stationary,  but  progressive.  It 
is  the  effort  of  men,  and  the  successful 
effort,  to  interpret  Jesus  Christ ;  and  that 
interpretation,  or  those  interpretations, 
without  reserve  we  accept;  but  not,  of 
course,  as  fully  interpreting  Jesus  Christ. 
We  do  not  accept  them  in  that  way.  We 
cannot  accept  them  in  that  way.  To  ac- 
cept them  in  that  way  is  to  reject  them.  It 
is  to  make  Christ  less  than  what  they  try 
to  express,  and  what  they  do  express.     It 


30        THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

is  to  make  Him  limited  and  finite,  which 
they  declare  Pie  is  not ;  and  in  declaring 
that  He  is  not  finite,  they  declare  them- 
selves to  be  bnt  the  partial  expression  of 
Him.  Then,  again,  those  doctrinal  state- 
ments are,  after  all,  but  the  words  of  man ; 
and  the  strongest  words  of  man,  and  the 
finest  words  of  man,  cannot  always  inter- 
pret even  man  himself,  and  have  the  effect 
often,  not  to  express,  but  to  stifle  what  is 
best  and  deepest  in  liim.  Have  you  never 
known  what  it  is  to  listen  to  the  strains  of 
some  magnificent  music,  which  like  an  in- 
spiration of  heaven  seemed  to  come  and 
touch  so  sweetly,  yet  so  strongly,  your 
answering  heart  and  soul,  and  to  lift  you 
up  for  a  moment  as  into  the  very  joy  of 
the  presence  of  God  ?  And  then,  when  you 
dared  not  speak  or  whisper,  or  scarcely 
breathe,  lest  the  spell  should  be  broken, 
some  little  critical,  superficial  soul  has 
come  bustling  up  into  your  presence  with 
his  chattering  comment,  and  extinguished 
the  dream  wliich  was  on  your  soul,  and 
driven  its  glory  away.  The  music  —  that 
was  your  word,  which  best  expressed  and 
phrased  ^vhat  you  thought  and  felt,  or  what 
you  longed  to  be,  and  all  others  seemed  out 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PAST         31 

of  place.  The  artist  stands  with  brush  and 
palette,  day  after  day,  before  liis  canvas, 
trying  so  hard  to  speak.  He  says  nothing ; 
his  lips  are  dumb ;  there  is  silence  around 
him,  and  he  would  not  have  it  disturbed. 
Yet  the  deep,  unuttered  thoughts  which  are 
buried  in  his  soul,  with  the  best  possible 
expression,  and  in  the  most  appropriate 
manner,  are  gradually  coming  out;  and 
then,  when  liis  work  is  done,  he  points  to 
the  finished  picture  and  says,  "  There,  that 
is  what  I  think ;  that  is  what  I  feel ;  that 
is  what  I  believe ;  that  is  my  creed ;  and 
all  the  thought,  and  beauty,  and  life  of  my 
soul  is  there,  as  no  language  of  mine  can 
express  it !  " 

An  English  traveller  has  told  us  that 
once  in  the  course  of  his  life  he  witnessed  a 
storm  at  sea,  so  magnificent  in  its  propor- 
tions, so  sublime  in  its  forms  and  effects, 
that  he  was  lifted  up  out  of  himself,  and 
lost  all  sense  of  himself.  And,  as  the 
winds  struck  the  waters  and  lifted  them  up 
into  mountains,  and  the  thunders  uttered 
their  voice,  and  the  lightnings  forked  and 
flashed  and  wrapped  the  clouds  in  flame, 
and  all  nature  reeled  in  the  shock,  there 
was  borne  in  upon  his  soul  such  a  sense  of 


32    THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

the  greatness,  the  glory,  the  awful  majesty 
of  God,  as  no  language  of  man  could  ex- 
press it,  and  whose  only  fit  and  proper 
word  —  symbol,  doctrine,  if  you  please  — 
was  the  storm. 

The  words  of  man,  I  say,  cannot  inter- 
pret even  all  that  is  in  man.  How  much 
less,  then,  can  they  interpret  all  that  there 
is  in  Jesus  Christ !  And,  standing  before 
the  picture  of  His  great  and  wonderful  life, 
as  on  the  Gospel  pages,  —  in  the  words  of 
man,  to  be  sure,  but  in  the  words  of  man 
so  fitly  chosen  that  they  seem  to  be  not 
the  words  of  man,  but  part  of  the  picture 
itself,  —  as  on  the  Gospel  pages  that  picture 
is  portrayed,  we  are  made  to  feel  that  there 
is  a  beauty,  and  a  power,  and  a  majesty 
there  which  no  other  words  of  man,  how- 
ever emotionally  fine,  or  philosophically 
true,  or  metaphysically  subtle,  can  express. 
Standing  there,  we  seem,  not  by  conscious 
effort,  but  instinctively,  involuntarily,  to 
be  carried  far  above  all  formal  definitions 
of  Him,  and  Cln:ist  Himself  is  the  Word 
which  best  expresses  what  we  think  and 
feel,  and  what  we  most  truly  believe.  For 
practical  working  purposes  we  have,  indeed, 
and  must   have,   our  definitions  of    Him, 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PAST         33 

and  must  try  to  put  in  forms  of  speech 
our  thoughts  and  opinions  about  Him. 
Some  in  the  past  have  done  it;  and  what 
they  have  done  we  accept,  and  are  grateful 
to  them  for  it.  We  coukl  not  if  we  would 
repudiate  their  work  -,  and  we  do  not  wish 
to  repudiate  it,  nor  even  indeed  to  change 
it.  It  is  theirs ;  it  is  ours ;  and  we  hold  it 
as  the  heritage  received  from  them;  and 
we  can  no  more  reject  it  than  to-day  can 
reject  yesterday,  or  to-morrow  reject  to- 
day ;  and  yet  to-day  is  more  than  yesterday, 
and  to-morrow  will  be  more  than  to-day. 

As  the  men  of  the  past  contributed  some- 
thing, contributed  much,  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth  of  God  in  Christ,  so  must  the 
men  of  the  present  contribute  some  further 
knowledge  which  will  be  added  to  theirs, 
as  the  knowledge  contributed  by  the  men 
of  the  future  will  be  added  to  ours.  The 
beautiful  dream  of  Coleridge  may  then 
perhaps  be  realized,  and  the  Chi'istian 
Church  may  become  like  a  great  univer- 
sity school,  in  which  all  the  members  and 
pupils,  having  presented  their  admission 
contracts,  will  walk  at  large  and  at  liberty, 
alone  now,  and  now  in  groups,  meditating 
and  conversing,  gladly   listening   to  some 

3 


34        THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

elder  disciple  whom  the  spirit  of  God  has 
taught,  or  lovingly  communing  with  some 
class  fellow,  while  the  common  concern 
will  be  peace,  order,  courtesy,  mutual  for- 
bearance, reverence,  patience,  kindness, 
charity,  love  for  each  and  all,  and  the  com- 
mon devotion  of  all  and  each  to  their 
common  Master  and  Lord.  Yes,  their 
common  Master  and  Lord,  who,  as  repre- 
sented and  portrayed  on  the  pages  of  the 
Gospel  story,  is  always  greater  and  more 
than  any  doctrinal  statement  that  can  be 
framed  about  Him. 

That,  as  Christian  preachers  to-day, 
sliould  be  your  relation  to  the  past.  Grate- 
ful and  glad  for  what  of  Jesus  Clmst  it 
has  shown  you,  but  more  grateful  and 
more  glad  because  He  is  more  than  what 
it  lias  shown  you.  Who  always  has  been 
more,  and  always  will  be  more.  Who, 
from  the  very  beginning  of  the  history  of 
the  Christian  Church  down  to  tlie  present 
time,  has  bjen  unfolding  Himself  in  many 
ways  and  forms  to  the  consciousness  of 
the  Christian  Church.  And,  "From  the 
vision  and  voice  at  Damascus,"  if  I  may 
bring  this  lecture  to  its  close  as  one  has 
closed  the  introduction  to  his  book,  "  From 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PAST        35 

tliu  vision  and  voice  at  Damascus,  and  the 
tremendous  words  uttered  in  the  midst  of 
the  Seven  Golden  Candlesticks  over  the 
Greek  Sea,  the  Mystical  Presence  still 
glides  and  shines.  Gleams  and  echoes  of 
it  linger  on  the  Roman  roadside,  by  the 
Domine  Quo  Vadis,  on  the  Hall  of  the 
Round  Table  at  Winchester ;  on  the  clear- 
ing in  the  woodland  where  the  Merciful 
Knight  di"ew  rein  before  the  C'rucitix. 
And  again,  and  yet  again  it  has  returned, 
a  voice  and  a  vision,  to  such  as  have  at 
any  time  believed  they  saw  and  heard  it, 
of  whom  some  remain  to  this  present,  but 
the  greater  part  are  fallen  asleep." 

The  theme,  then,  young  gentlemen, 
which  you  are  called  to  study  and  preach, 
is  an  inexhaustible  theme,  for  that  theme 
is  Jesus  Christ.  And  deptlis  below  depths 
are  in  it ;  and  heights  beyond  heights  are 
in  it,  which  have  never  been  fathomed  or 
scaled,  and  which  invite  you  to  the  attempt. 
And,  listening  to  the  A^oices  which  are 
sounding  about  you  to-day,  and  which  at 
times  seem  so  bewildering ;  and  consider- 
ing with  an  open  and  a  fearless  mind  all 
the  forms  of  thought  which  are  pressing 
upon  you  to-da}^,  and  which  at  times  seem 


36         THE  PREACHER  AND  BIS  PLACE 

SO  disturbing,  you  will  find,  I  am  sure,  at 
last,  that  just  so  far  indeed  as  those  voices 
and  thoughts  are  true,  they  will  simply 
give  or  be  some  new  points  of  view  from 
which  to  see  new  meanings  and  wonders 
in  Jesus  Christ. 

"  Then  stand  before  that  fact,  that  Life  and 
Death 
Stay  there  at  gaze,  till  it  dispart,  dispread ; 
As  though  a  star  should  open  out,  all  sides 
Grow  the  world  on  you." 


THE 
PREACHER   AND   THE   PRESENT 


THE 
PREACHER   AND   THE   PRESENT 

T  N  the  previous  lecture  we  considered  the 
work  of  the  preacher  in  its  rcLation  to 
the  past.  Let  us  consider  now  his  work  in 
its  relation  to  the  present,  the  society  in 
which  he  lives,  and  of  which  he  forms  a 
part,  and  to  which  he  is  called  to  preach. 
The  physician  who  prescribes  without  an 
adequate  knowledge  of  the  case  for  which 
he  prescribes  will  not  prescribe  well ;  and 
the  preacher  who  preaches  without  an 
understanding  of  the  society  to  which 
he  preaches,  its  prevailing  temper  or  dis- 
temper, will  not  preach  well.  Before, 
therefore,  I  can  hope  to  tell  you  anytliing 
about  the  method  of  your  preaching  to-day, 
I  must  try  to  tell  you  something  about 
to-day.  For  it  is  to  to-day,  and  not  to 
yesterday,  that  you  will  presently  preach. 
You  must  never  forget  that.  And  how  can 
you  preacli  to  to-day,  unless  you  have  some 
knowledge  of  what  to-day  is?     And  what 


40         THE  PREACFIER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

is  it?  How  may  it  be  described?  To 
answer  such  questions  fully  would  be  ex- 
tremely difficult,  if  not  impossible.  Society 
to-day  is  not  simple  in  its  composition,  but 
multiform  and  complex.  The  tendencies 
in  it  are  not  only  numerous,  but  various, 
and  often  indeed  contrary.  They  run  in 
different  directions,  and  currents  and  ed- 
dies are  in  it  proceeding  in  different  paths. 
That  is  what  makes  society  to-day  so  inter- 
esting. It  has  witliin  it  so  much  life ;  so 
much  of  the  exuberance  of  life;  so  much 
of  the  heterogeneousness  of  life ;  and  in 
looking  at  or  describing  it,  or  in  attempting 
to  describe  it,  one  thinks  of  the  way  in 
which  the  waters  come  down  at  Lodore. 
It  is  not  this  or  that,  it  is  hoth  this  and  that, 
and  never  seems  still  or  the  same,  but  is 
always  moving,  and  changing,  and  rusliing, 
and  plunging,  and  dasliing, 

"  Smiting  and  fighting, 

A  sight  to  delight  in  ; 

Confounding,  astounding, 
And  deafening  the  ear  with  its  sound  !  " 

I  am  not  about  to  attempt,  therefore, 
an3rtliing  so  ambitious,  or  indeed  so  prepos- 
terous, as  a  comprehensive  study  of  mod- 
ern  society.     That,    I    confess,  is   a   task 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PRESENT       41 

beyond  my  ability.  It  is  also  beside  my 
purpose.  I  have  no  such  generalizing 
process  (a  process  always  dangerous,  and 
apt  not  to  be  true,  because  only  partly 
true),  I  have  no  such  generalizing  process 
at  present  in  my  mind.  I  simply  want  you 
to  look  at  society  to-day  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  pulpit,  and  in  its  relation  to  the 
preacher,  or  rather  in  its  relation  to  the 
message  of  the  preacher,  in  order  that  you 
may  understand  the  better  not  only  what 
that  message  should  be,  but  how  to  prepare 
and  preach  it. 

Looking,  then,  at  society  to-day  in  its  re- 
lation to  the  preacher,  what  do  we  find? 
We  find,  in  the  first  place,  that  it  does  not 
care  about  preaching  as  much  as  society 
yesterday  did,  or  society  the  day  before ; 
and  that  while  it  may  need  it  just  as  much, 
it  does  not  just  as  much  think  that  it  needs 
it.  Preaching  has  been  hitherto  a  ver}^ 
effective  and  much-appreciated  factor  in 
the  development  of  the  social  life,  and  has 
helped  very  much  to  make  it  what  at  pres- 
ent it  is.  "It  was  by  a  sermon,"  says  an 
English  reviewer,  "  that  the  movement  was 
inaugurated  which  has  since  grown  into 
Cliristendom,  and  which  is  now    by  more 


42         THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

silent  though  not  less  potent  agencies  visi- 
bly overspreading  the  earth.  Men  went 
forth  preaching  'Jesus  and  the  Resurrec- 
tion ; '  and  from  their  generation  we  date, 
not  our  years  only,  but  a  new  movement  of 
human  society  which  is  filling  the  world 
with  its  pressures  and  its  progresses  still." 
That  was  true  of  preaching  once.  Is  it 
true  of  preacliing  now?  Is  preaching 
equally  valuable  and  important  now  ?  Does 
it  still  have  in  the  world  an  important 
work  to  do,  or  has  it  become  to-day  an 
anaclu'onistic  thing,  a  sometliing  out  of 
date,  a  venerable  institution  which  has 
survived  in  form,  but  in  form  only,  like  a 
rudiment  wliich  has  lost  its  function,  and 
which  in  the  vast,  and  varied,  and  more 
highly  developed  economy  of  the  modern 
social  life  has  no  proper  place  ? 

Tliis  latter  view  of  preacliing  is  the  view 
of  many.  They  do  not  care  about  it,  or  do 
not  care  very  much  about  it.  Eloquent 
preacliing  they  care  for,  but  chiefly  be- 
cause it  is  eloquent,  and  not  because  it  is 
preaching.  And  therefore  they  do  not  go, 
or  do  not  go  very  much,  to  the  place  where 
preaching  is  done.  Many,  I  know,  do  go ; 
and   many  churches   there  are  which  are 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PRESENT       43 

always  filled  with  earnest  and  interested 
congregations;  but  there  are  many  more 
which  are  not.  Nor  is  it  always  the  ser- 
mon that  constitutes  the  attraction  in  the 
case  of  those  who  do  go  to  church.  The 
Roman  Catholic  churches  are  as  well  filled 
as  the  Protestant,  and  perhaps  better,  and 
it  is  not  the  sermon  that  fills  them.  Neither 
is  it  the  sermon  that  always  fills  the 
Protestant  churches.  Sometimes  it  is  the 
service,  the  music,  the  ritual,  the  worsliip, 
the  things  wliich  go  before,  which  some  of 
you  call  "  the  preliminaries."  Sometimes, 
too,  it  is  social  convention  that  fills  them, 
and  people  often  go  to  church  because  their 
neighbors  go,  —  their  neighbors  whom  they 
esteem,  their  neighbors  whom  they  affect ; 
and  the  religiousness  which  they  exhibit, 
or  which  they  seem  to  exhibit,  we  find 
when  we  come  to  analyze  it,  is  not  reli- 
giousness, but  fashionableness.  "I  have 
often  met  with  women,"  says  the  author  of 
the  book,  "Without  Dogma"  (and  men, 
too,  he  might  have  added),  "  to  whom  reli- 
gion was  simply  an  item  of  the  toilet ;  and 
they  dressed  themselves  in  it,  or  in  some 
particular  form  of  it,  as  seemed  to  suit  their 
stjde."     That  sounds  severe  ;  but  those  of 


44    THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

US  who  have  had  an  opportunity  in  the 
practical  work  of  the  ministry  to  mingle 
much  with  the  people  who  compose  our 
congregations  know  that  there  is  truth  in 
it;  and  the  fact  that  many  people  go  to 
church  to-day  does  not  of  necessity  show 
that  they  go  for  the  sake  of  religion,  and 
still  less  for  the  sake  of  the  sermon.  It 
simply  shows,  I  think,  that  people,  like 
motives,  are  mixed,  —  religious  people  with 
other  people,  —  and  that  it  is  not  easy  at 
present  to  draw  the  line  distinctly  between 
the  church  and  the  world. 

Whether,  then,  we  consider  those  who 
go  to  church,  or  those  who  stay  away,  we 
find  that  people  now  do  not  as  a  rule  attach 
so  much  importance  to  preacliing  as  people 
formerly  did.  That  is  a  fact,  to  be  perhaps 
deplored,  but  not  to  be  ignored,  and  which 
will  not,  I  think,  be  disputed.  And  why  is 
it  a  fact  ?  What  is  the  explanation  of  it  ? 
Is  it  the  fault  of  the  preacher  ?  To  some 
extent  I  think  it  is,  and  of  that  I  will  speak 
later.  But  it  is  not  altogether  liis  fault. 
It  is  due  in  a  measure  to  causes  for  which 
he  is  not  responsible,  but  which  neverthe- 
less he  must  try  to  overcome.  The  art  of 
printing   has  a   good  deal  to  do  with  it. 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PRESENT      45 

There  was  a  time  when  if  people  desired 
instruction  on  the  subject  of  religion  they 
had  to  go  to  church  and  listen  to  a  sermon. 
That  was  then  the  way,  or  at  least  the 
principal  way,  in  which  to  receive  instruc- 
tion. Now,  however,  it  is  only  one  of  very 
many  ways.  The  people  to-day  who  are 
interested  in  homiletical  instruction  need 
not  go  to  church  and  listen  to  a  sermon, 
but  can  stay  at  home  and  read  one,  and  a 
better  one,  perhaps,  than  many  which  they 
would  hear,  and  thus  be  by  the  reading 
more  than  by  the  hearing  helped.  I  know 
that  truth  is  sometimes  more  persuasive, 
more  stimulating  and  inspiring,  when 
heard  than  when  read;  but  I  also  know 
that  the  mind  cannot  so  readily  catch  and 
hold  the  truth,  or  follow  it  out  so  fully  as 
when  it  is  "harvested  by  the  quiet  eye." 
And  in  these  days  of  cheap  and  voluminous 
literature,  with  a  public  library  in  every 
town,  and  a  private  one  in  almost  every 
house,  when  the  sermons  of  a  Liddon, 
or  a  Brooks,  or  a  Spurgeon  can  be  pur- 
chased for  the  small  fraction  of  a  dol- 
lar, when  magazines  and  periodicals  are 
freighted  down  with  religious  and  tlieologi- 
cal  lore,  when  the  words  spoken  in  West- 


46         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

minster,  in  St.  Panl's  Cathedral,  and  in  all 
the  great  pulpits  of  Christendom  can  be  so 
soon  delivered  upon  their  study  table,  to  be 
read  quietly  at  their  own  leisure,  by  their 
own  fireside,  why,  pray,  should  people  go 
to  church  to  receive  religious  instruction 
by  listening  to  a  sermon? 

But  that  is  not  the  only  reason  why 
many  people  to-day  do  not  attach  so  much 
importance  to  preaching.  There  is  another, 
for  which  the  preacher  is  himself  respon- 
sible. So  much  of  the  preaching  to-day 
seems  to  be  preaching  to  yesterday,  or 
preaching  about  yesterday.  It  does  not 
touch  as  it  ought  the  contemporary  life,  and 
grapple  with  its  problems,  its  duties,  its  dif- 
ficulties, its  dangers.  There  is,  in  conse- 
quence, a  sense  of  unreality  about  it,  a  for- 
eignness,  a  far-away-ness  ;  and  to  men  who 
are  of  necessity  preoccupied  with  the  exigen- 
cies of  contemporary  life,  it  is  not  helpful 
preacliing.  Then,  again,  there  is  in  preach- 
ing at  times  too  much  of  o^Aer-worldness, 
and  not  enough  of  ^/w's-worldness.  Instead 
of  making  it  appear  that  the  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  chiefly  for  the  present,  we 
teach  it  in  such  a  Avay  as  to  produce  on 
men  the  impression  that   it  is  chiefly  for 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PRESENT      47 

the  future,  disclosing  to  them  the  joys  of 
the  future,  or  the  sorrows  and  pains  of  the 
future,  —  the  joys  of  some  future  heaven,  or 
the  pains  of  some  future  hell.  And  they 
are  apt,  in  consequence,  to  receive  from  us 
the  notion  that  the  principal  function  and 
use  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  to 
show  them  how  to  escape  at  last  the  latter, 
and  to  receive  at  last  the  former ;  or  how  to 
get  ready  in  tliis  world  to  enter  at  last 
another,  and  to  meet  there  their  God. 
Whereas  we  ought  to  teach,  so  it  seems  to 
me,  that  that,  instead  of  being  the  principal 
use  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Clnist,  is,  in 
fact,  its  least ;  and  that  its  purpose  is  not 
to  help  them  to  die  right  and  to  get  into 
heaven  after  they  die,  but  to  help  them  to 
live  right,  and  to  get  into  heaven  before 
they  die.  We  should  try  to  make  them 
understand  that  there  is  a  heaven  here  in 
this  world,  and  a  hell  here  in  this  world, 
and  that  those  who  at  present  are  living  in 
this  world  are  in  tliis  heaven  or  this  hell. 
And  Jesus  comes  as  light,  we  should  try 
to  make  them  understand,  to  show  them 
how  to  get  out  of  the  hell  which  is  here, 
or  the  hell-fire  which  is  here,  into  the 
heaven   which  is   here.      The    light  with 


48         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

which  He  comes,  to  be  sure,  with  which  He 
shone  and  shines,  is  the  light  of  another 
workl,  declaring  another  world,  disclosing 
another  world,  its  reality,  its  power,  its  life, 
its  discriminating  judgments,  its  discrim- 
inating awards ;  the  light  with  which  He 
shines  is  the  light  of  another  world,  but 
shining  down  upon  and  meant  chiefly  for 
this  world.  The  sun  is  up  in  the  sky,  but 
it  shines  there  for  the  earth ;  and  the  way 
in  wliich  to  use  that  light  of  the  sun  is  not 
to  stand  gazing  up  into  the  sky  and  acquir- 
ing thus  a  physical  myopia,  or  shortsighted- 
ness, which  prevents  the  gazers  from  seeing 
clearly  the  things  immediately  about  them, 
but  to  walk  on  the  earth  in  the  light  of  the 
sun,  and  with  wliich  on  the  earth  it  shines. 
So,  too,  we  should  try  to  teach  men  and 
women  to-day  that  the  way  in  wliich  to  use 
the  light  of  another  world  shining  in  Jesus 
Christ,  is  not  to  stand  gazing  up  into  the 
heavens  and  acquiring  thus  a  kind  of  spir- 
itual myopia,  or  shortsightedness,  wliich 
prevents  them  from  seeing  clearly  the  forms 
of  duty  immediately  about  them,  but  to 
walk  on  the  earth  in  the  light  of  that  other 
world  which  in  Jesus  Christ  so  brightly 
and  beautifully  appears. 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PRESENT      49 

This  brings  me  to  the  consideration  of 
anotlier  reason  why  so  many  people  to-day 
are  not  interested  in  sermons.  The  feeling 
is  more  or  less  prevalent,  not  only  among 
the  few,  but  also  among  the  many,  that  reli- 
gion, so  far  as  it  relates  to  anotlier  world,  is 
a  subject  upon  which  neither  the  preacher 
nor  any  one  else  can  have  any  real  and 
verifiable  knowledge.  It  is  admitted  to  be, 
indeed,  a  most  important  subject,  and  a 
most  interesting  subject,  and  yet  of  neces- 
sity unfathomable  and  unknowable.  This 
Accessary  ignorance  of  the  human  mind 
upon  the  subject  of  religion  has  become  in 
our  time  a  philosophy  or  a  science,  or  rather 
a  nescience.  And  some  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished and  influential  thinkers  in  the 
field  of  modern  thought  are  declaring  that 
while  there  is  some  power  back  of  phenom- 
ena, or  some  power  pervading  phenomena, 
transcendent  or  immanent,  or  both,  from 
which  they  all  proceed,  and  by  which  they 
all  transpire,  yet  from  the  very  nature  of 
the  human  mind,  its  relatedness,  its  condi- 
tionedness,  we  do  not  know  and  cannot 
what  that  power  is  like,  or  what  in  itself 
it  is.  This  philosophy,  as  I  have  already 
intimated,  is  not  confined  in  its  influence 
4 


50         THE   PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

to  the  philosophical  few.  Philosophy  never 
is.  It  reaches  the  masses  of  the  people, 
and  is  felt  more  or  less  by  all.  "  Though 
I  care  but  little,"  says  the  French  writer, 
De  Tocqueville,  "  about  the  study  of  philos- 
ophy as  such,  I  have  always  been  struck 
with  the  influence  which  it  has  exerted 
over  the  things  that  seem  to  be  the  least 
connected  with  it ;  and  even  over  society 
in  general,  for  abstract  ideas,  however 
metaphysical  and  apparently  unpractical, 
penetrate  at  last,  I  know  not  how,  into  the 
realm  of  public  morals."  And  so  with 
that  agnostic  or  nescient  philosophy  which 
is  current  now.  Although  in  its  metaphy- 
sical form  it  is  intricate  and  abstruse,  and 
beyond  the  popular  grasp,  it  is  not  conlined 
in  its  influence  to  the  region  of  pliilosophy 
proper.  It  reaches  the  popular  mind,  it 
influences  the  popular  judgment;  and  in- 
stead of  dwelling  apart  like  a  star  in  the 
firmament  of  pure  speculation,  it  is  on  the 
contrary  shining  with  a  light  that  leads 
astray  (so  at  least  I  think)  throughout  the 
whole  economy  of  the  modern  practical 
life.  Or,  changing  if  I  may  the  simile,  its 
spirit  seems  to  be  in  the  very  air  to-day,  and 
everywhere  we  meet  it,  and  everywhere  we 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PRESENT       51 

breathe  it.  In  colleges  we  meet  it;  in 
clubs  and  drawing-rooms,  in  papers  and 
books,  and  magazines ;  in  the  poetry  of  the 
day ;  in  the  fiction  of  the  day ;  in  all  the 
forms  and  phases  of  the  literature  of 
the  day.  And  when  from  time  to  time  the 
preacher's  voice  is  heard  speaking  of  God, 
and  the  soul,  and  the  immortal  life,  and 
a  world  beyond  this  world ;  another  voice 
seems  to  come  back  in  a  kind  of  antiphonal 
response,  that  these  are  matters,  however  in- 
teresting, upon  which  the  preacher  has  no 
knowledge,  or  at  least  no  verifiable  knowl- 
edge ;  that  these  are  problems  which  the 
preacher  cannot  solve,  wliich  nobody  can 
solve,  which  are  of  necessity  unsolvable, 
and  that  round  and  round  in  a  circle  we 
must  forever  go,  and  "  ever  more  come  out 
by  the  same  door  that  in  we  went." 

And  so  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  age 
in  which  we  live  is  to  a  great  extent  on 
the  subject  of  religion  silent.  In  some 
respects,  indeed,  it  is  loud  and  noisy  enough, 
and  the  battle  of  words  is  fierce,  and  the 
strife  of  tongues  is  great,  and  clamorous, 
and  incessant.  Possibly  there  never  was 
a  time,  with  the  exception  of  the  bright 
and  palmy  days  of  Athenian  culture,  Avhen 


52         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

there  was  so  much  mental  inquisitiveness 
in  society  at  large  as  there  is  in  society 
now.  And  that  mental  inquisitiveness, 
wliich  tlirough  paper  and  book  and  maga- 
zine, as  well  as  through  the  medium  of 
private  and  personal  conversation,  is  caus- 
ing itself  to  be  heard,  has  contributed  in 
no  little  degree  to  our  mental  enlighten- 
ment and  enrichment.  We  are  talking  a 
good  deal  to-day  on  many  and  various  sub- 
jects. We  are  talking,  too,  to  some  pur- 
pose ;  and  in  spite  of  the  superficialness  of 
much  of  our  speech,  we  are,  I  think,  as  a 
rule  talking  wisely  and  well.  But  when 
it  comes  to  the  consideration  of  religious 
questions,  there  is  a  growing  feeling  upon 
the  part  of  thoughtful  people  that  it  is 
better  not  to  talk,  that  it  is  better  just  to 
be  silent.  I  do  not  forget  that  there  is 
a  good  deal  of  religious  controversy,  and 
discussion,  and  criticism  going  on;  and 
that  here,  too,  the  strife  of  tongues  and  the 
battle  of  words  is  fierce.  And  yet  despite 
tills  fact,  which  is  obvious  enough,  there  is 
a  conviction  stealing  over  the  minds  of 
many,  like  a  creeping  paralysis,  that  it 
is  after  all  and  for  the  most  part  simply 
a  battle  of  words,  in  which  they  can  make 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PRESENT      53 

no  progress  towards  a  permanent  and  final 
conclusion.  What  is  settled  to-day,  they 
tliink,  will  be  unsettled  to-morrow ;  then 
the  next  day  they  will  have  to  try  to 
settle  it  again  ;  and  thus  round  and  round 
in  a  circle  of  search  they  must  go,  in  wan- 
dering mazes  lost.  It  is  just  this  feeling, 
I  think,  that  drives  so  many  people  into 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  They  are 
tired  to  death  of  searching  and  not  finding, 
*'  of  dropping  buckets  into  empty  wells,  and 
growing  old  in  drawing  nothing  up."  They 
want  to  be  settled  and  fixed  in  a  way  that 
will  not  have  to  be  unsettled  and  unfixed. 
Their  chief  desire  is  for  some  kind  of  final 
faith.  They  are  not,  perhaps,  particular, 
after  a  long  and  fruitless  search,  what  kind 
of  faith  it  is,  if  only  it  is  positive  and  final. 
They  tliink  that  Rome  has  it,  because  she 
so  stoutly  claims  it,  and  so  to  Rome  they 

go- 
There  is,  however,  another  and  larger 
and  more  thoughtful  class  to  whom  that 
kind  of  relief  is  no  relief  at  all.  They 
have  almost  made  up  their  minds  that 
there  is  no  relief  to  be  had.  Religion  pre- 
sents a  problem  which  they  tliink  cannot 
be  solved.     The  philosopher  cannot  solve 


54        THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

it,  they  say,  at  least  lie  has  not  solved  it. 
The  historian  cannot  solve  it,  the  scholar, 
the  theologian,  the  preacher  cannot  solve  it ; 
and  while  they  are  not  indifferent  to  it, 
they  have  almost  reached  the  conclusion 
that  no  conclusion  can  be  reached,  and 
that  the  best  thing,  therefore,  wliich  they 
can  do  is  just  to  accept  their  limitations 
and  make  up  their  minds  to  be  ignorant. 
That  seems  to  me  to  be  a  characteristic  of 
the  present  age.  We  cannot  call  it  inii*- 
delity  exactly ;  it  is  not  infidelity.  Or,  if 
it  be  infidelity,  it  is  very  different  from  that 
old  infidelity  which  formerly '  prevailed 
That  old  infidelity,  as  has  been  said,  was 
loud  in  its  hate  and  defiance.  This  new 
infidelity,  if  we  can  call  it  such,  is  suave 
and  serene  in  its  ignorance.  That  old 
infidelity  slmeked  and  screamed  in  its 
hatred  of  religion.  This  new  infidelity 
simply  shrugs  its  shoulders  and  goes  on 
its  way,  and  says,  "  You  must  excuse  me ; 
I  really  know  nothing  about  it."  And 
so  it  has  come  to  pass,  that  wliile  the 
age  in  which  we  live  is  noisy  and  loud 
enough  on  almost  everything  else,  and 
talkative  enough,  and  inquisitive  enough, 
with  a  buoyant  and  hopeful  inquisitiveness 


TUK  PREACHER  AND   THE  PRESENT       55 

which  nothing  stifles  or  stills,  it  is  for  the 
most  part  in  religious  matters  quiet,  and 
has  but  little  to  say.  That  is  the  temper, 
the  pliilosophic  temper  or  distemper,  of  the 
time;  not  only  among  the  few,  but  also 
among  the  many,  and  who  are  made  some- 
what intliiTerent  to  the  voice  of  the  preacher 
by  it. 

And  not  only  does  it  act  negatively,  it 
acts  positively.  It  has  an  effect  on  con- 
duct, and  the  agnosticism  of  the  age  accen- 
tuates and  intensifies  the  secularism  of  the 
age.  That  is  inevitable.  For  if  the  things 
of  religion  are  past  our  fuiding  out,  then 
let  us  address  ourselves,  men  say,  or  tliink, 
to  the  things  wliich  are  not  past  our  find- 
ing out ;  and  in  our  ignorance  of  another 
and  better  world,  let  us  make  the  best  of 
this,  and  try  the  best  we  can  to  conquer, 
and  overcome,  and  take  possession  of  it. 
And  so  does  life  become  chiefly  a  material 
thing,  and  its  joys  material  303^8,  and  its 
ambitions  material  ambitions,  and  its  values 
material  values.  Its  conception  of  great- 
ness and  power  means  chiefly  material 
greatness  and  power :  so  many  horse-power, 
or,  if  that  has  become  an  obsolete  plu-ase  in 
these  days  of  electrical  experiment,  so  many 


56         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

volt-power.  Its  conception  of  growth  and 
development  means  chiefly  material  growth 
and  development,  and  facilities  for  getting 
abont,  or  for  going  from  place  to  place, 
and  for  talking  at  long  distances,  no  mat- 
ter how  poorly  it  talks,  and  nearly  all 
whose  problems  by  rapid  transit  are  solved. 
It  is  a  conception  of  greatness  which  tliinks 
it  the  highest  pitch  of  civilization  if,  to  nse 
Mr.  Matthew  Arnold's  plirase,  it  can  only 
make  its  trains  run  every  half  hour  between 
one  little  dismal  village  and  another  little 
dismal  village,  and  carry  messages  to  and  fro 
of  the  dismal  life  in  each.  And  that  is  the 
materialism  which  is  upon  us  now.  Not 
the  materialism  of  the  school  merely,  but 
the  materialism  of  the  street,  or  the  mate- 
rialism of  the  school  producing  the  mate- 
rialism of  the  street,  the  office,  the  shop, 
the  bank,  the  railroad,  the  cbawing-room, 
the  counting-room.  The  blind  man  in  the 
Gospel  story  whose  sight  had  been  restored, 
but  not  fully  restored,  looked  out,  we  are 
told,  upon  the  people  who  were  pressing 
and  moving  about  liim,  and  saw  them  as 
trees  walking.  A  poor  and  purblind  vision 
of  human  life  it  was.  But  is  it  not  the 
vision   wliich  so   many  seem   to   have  of 


THE  PREACHER  AMD   THE  PRESENT      57 

human  life  to-day,  as  something  chiefly 
physical,  as  something  chiefly  earthy,  rooted 
in  the  earth,  growing  out  of  the  earth,  re- 
turning to  the  earth,  receiving  from  the 
earth  its  substance,  and  having  in  the 
earth  its  home,  as  the  trees  of  the  forest 
have  ?  The  same  vital  forces  are  seen 
energizing  in  both,  and  feeding  and  nour- 
ishing both,  except  that  in  the  case  of  our 
human  life  they  have  gone  so  far  as  to 
make  the  trees  walk !  Is  it  not  so  ?  Does 
it  not  seem  so  ?  And  looking  at  the  way 
in  which  so  many  regard  the  human  beings 
about  them,  wherein,  after  all,  does  it  differ 
so  much  from  the  way  in  which  they  re- 
gard the  growing  trees  about  them  ?  They 
make  of  the  tree  a  handle  with  which  to  do 
their  work,  and  they  make  of  the  man  a 
hand  with  which  to  do  their  work,  and 
then  they  use  them  both,  the  handle  and 
the  hand;  and  it  is  often  so  hard  to  see 
where  the  handle  stops,  and  where  the 
hand  begins.  Or  they  gather  from  the  tree 
the  fruit,  and  they  gather  from  the  man 
the  fruit,  and  both  are  good  and  useful 
because  of  the  fruit  they  bear.  And  if 
sometimes  the  tree  seems  to  be  in  their 
way  they  cut  it  down.     And  if  sometimes 


58         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

the  man  seems  to  be  in  their  way,  and  to 
stop  and  stay  their  progress,  or  hinder  and 
block  their  path,  why  then  tliey  cnt  him 
down.  "Ah,  the  pity  of  it,"  they  say; 
yes,  the  pity  of  it,  and  yet  so  it  must  be. 
It  is  the  way  of  the  world  ;  it  is  the  method 
of  business ;  it  is  the  law  of  trade.  They 
cut  him  down  and  spare  not,  as  the  forester 
cuts  the  tree  down  and  spares  not. 

Then  look  at  the  way  in  which  those 
who  are  prosperous  and  better  off  regard 
the  poor.  Not  recognizing  chiefly  and 
first  of  all  the  great  and  divine  humanity 
in  them,  and  trying  to  call  it  forth,  but 
simply  from  their  abundance  ministering 
more  or  less  to  the  immediate  physical 
needs  of  those  whom  they  seek  to  relieve, 
and  stopping  there  and  at  that,  and  think- 
ing that  that  is  all,  or  thinking  that  that 
is  enough,  —  as  though  their  beneficiaries 
were  not  so  different  after  all  from  the 
trees  under  which  they  rest  in  some  city 
square  or  park,  except  that  the  trees  have 
somehow  learned  to  tramp.  Again,  look 
at  the  way  in  which  the  poor  in  turn 
so  often  regard  the  rich,  as  simply  fruit- 
ful trees  that  have  somehow  come  to  be 
planted  in  better  and  finer  soil,  as  fruit- 


THE  PRICACHER  AND   THE  PRESENT       59 

fill  trees  to  be  plucked,  and  by  some 
ingenious  and  clever  kind  of  appeal  to  be 
made  to  yield  their  fruit.  And  if  some- 
times, when  the  need  is  great,  and  the  fruit 
is  temptingly  near,  the  garden  is  entered 
and  spoiled,  and  the  fruit  plucked  and 
robbed,  why  the  crime,  after  all,  is  not  so 
great,  it  is  only  like  robbing  trees.  Or 
look  once  more  at  the  way  in  which  so 
many  seem  to  regard  themselves:  and 
wherein  does  it  differ  from  the  way  in 
which  a  tree,  supposing  it  could  talk, 
would  regard  itself  ?  "I  have  come  out  of 
the  earth,"  it  would  say,  "  and  am  simply 
a  physical  thing ;  and  by  and  by  I  know, 
like  everything  else  that  is  physical,  I  must 
crumble  away,  and  perish,  and  go  back 
again  to  the  earth.  In  the  mean  time  let 
me  live  a  joyous  physical  life.  Let  me 
gather  from  earth,  and  air,  and  gases,  and 
seas,  and  skies,  and  clouds  and  sunshine  in 
them,  a  physical  beauty  and  bloom.  And 
even  from  the  rocks  beneath  me,  around 
whose  forms  I  twine,  and  into  whose  fissures 
I  send  my  gnarled  and  twisted  roots, — 
yes,  even  from  the  rocks  beneath  me  let  me 
gather  physical  strength,  that  the  storms 
may  not  destroy  me,  nor  the  tempests  beat 


60    THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

me  down,  and  that  I  may  not  fall  and 
perish  before  my  time."  So  would  a  tree 
talk  if  it  could,  and  so  indeed  does  many 
a  man  who  can. 

And  that  is  the  voice  of  to-day,  or  one 
of  the  voices  of  to-day.  Everywhere  we 
hear  it,  —  in  the  social  world,  in  the  com- 
mercial world,  in  the  political  world.  It 
is  the  voice  of  the  man  who  speaks  of  the 
physical  value  of  the  age,  of  the  physical 
prosperity  of  the  age,  and  the  physical 
wealth  of  the  age,  and  speaks  about  it 
eloquently  and  fluently,  as  though  it  were 
all  in  all.  It  is  the  voice  of  the  man  who 
measures  all  human  movements  and  oppor- 
tunities, all  human  motives  and  methods, 
by  a  standard  of  physical  excellence. 
And  when  you  venture  to  say  to  him  (not 
in  the  pulpit,  where  you  are  expected  to 
say  it,  but  out  of  the  pulpit,  where  you  are 
not  expected  to  say  it,  and  yet  where  3'ou 
do  say  it,  because  you  believe  it)  that  the 
aim  of  a  Cln-istian  man  or  a  Clu'istian 
people  should  be  to  seek  first  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  and  all  those  great,  and  pure,  and 
lofty  faiths  and  ideals  wliich  the  Kingdom 
of  God  represents,  he  is  smitten  with  dumb- 
ness or  deafness,  and  does  not  know  what 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PRESENT      61 

you  mean  exactly,  or  thinks  you  are  an 
unpractical,  doctrinaire  sort  of  person, 
whose  business  it  is  to  do,  and  to  do  well 
of  course,  some  preaching  work  on  Sunday, 
and  not  to  have  any  part  in  the  real  and 
actual  conduct  of  earthly  things  and  affairs. 
That  is  the  type  of  man,  and  that  is  the 
kind  of  voice  which  is  so  often  seen  and 
heard.  A  good  enough  type  it  is  in  a 
certain  sort  of  way.  I  have  no  fault  to 
find  with  it  for  what  it  is,  but  cliiefly  for 
what  it  is  not.  It  is  truthful,  and  upright, 
and  honorable.  It  is  honest,  and  pa^^s  its 
debts ;  and  yet,  withal,  so  earthy,  so  un- 
spiritual,  so  unaspiring,  except  towards 
earthy  things.  It  seems  to  have  in  its 
life  so  little  use  for  God,  except  upon 
occasions,  and  tliose  not  very  frequent ; 
and  if,  as  Dr.  Martineau  says,  it  should 
be  told  some  day  that  God  was  dead,  it 
would  still  go  on  pretty  much  as  it  does 
now.  That,  I  say,  is  a  very  common  type 
of  humanity  to-day,  not  in  the  sense  of  its 
being  commonplace,  but  in  the  sense  of  its 
being  prevalent.  You  will  find  it  in  the 
city ;  you  will  find  it  in  the  country ;  in 
the  little  country  village ;  in  the  little 
countrj'^  town,   where  life  is  supposed   to 


62         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

be  (because  of  its  pastoral  environment) 
less  sordid  and  mercenary,  but  where  in 
fact  you  will  find  it  just  as  hard  and 
close  ("nigh"  I  believe  is  the  New  Eng- 
land word),  just  as  unresponsive  to  spirit- 
ual aims  and  ideals,  if  not  indeed  more  so, 
than  is  the  urban  life. 

And  not  only  outside  of  the  church  do 
you  find  that  kind  of  person  ;  you  find  him 
in  the  church :  as  a  regular  attendant 
upon  the  services  of  the  church,  sitting 
perhaps  in  the  front  pew,  and  listening  so 
attentively,  so  admiringly,  to  your  eloquent 
discourse.  A  clerical  friend  of  mine  was 
preaching  on  one  occasion  from  the  text, 
"  What  is  a  man  profited  if  he  should  gain 
the  whole  world,  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  " 
He  was  a  very  gifted  preacher,  and  was  on 
that  occasion  particularly  eloquent.  And 
as  he  tried  to  show,  in  that  rapt  and  fervid 
manner  so  characteristic  of  him,  that  the 
soul  might  be  a  present  loss,  a  loss  here  and 
now,  just  as  the  mind  might  be  a  ^Dresent 
loss,  and  that  the  wealth  of  the  whole 
world  would  be  in  such  a  case  to  the  man 
who  had  lost  his  soul,  as  to  the  man  who 
had  lost  his  mind,  but  a  poor  compensation, 
—  one  of  the  members  of  the  church  was 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PRESENT       63 

heard  to  say  to  a  friend  as  he  walked  with 
him  down  the  aisle  at  the  close  of  the 
service,  "  Why,  it  is  worth  money  to  hear 
that  man  preach !  "  Here,  indeed,  was  not 
indifference  to  preaching,  but  a  certain 
kind  of  appreciation  of  it  and  fondness  for 
it.  And  yet  with  that  appreciation  of 
preacliing,  because  it  was  good  and  elo- 
quent, there  was  also  that  dull,  opaque 
imperviousness  to  preaching  which  pre- 
vented it  from  doing  the  good  it  was  in- 
tended to  do,  and  which  knew  no  other 
or  better  way  of  expressing  its  appre- 
ciation than  by  rating  it  simply  as  a 
commercial  commodity,  and  putting  a 
commercial  value  upon  it.  And  tliis,  it 
seems  to  me,  was  not  an  exceptional  case. 
And  while  there  are  not  many  who  would 
express  themselves  perhaps  with  such  a 
naive  and  simple  frankness,  there  are  many 
and  very  many  whom  it  represents.  You 
will  meet  them  by  and  by ;  you  will  preach 
to  them  ;  and  they  will  listen  to  and  admire 
you,  and  say  to  their  friends  how  well  you 
preach,  and  that  they  ought  to  come  and 
hear  you.  And  sometimes  as  you  preach 
your  soul  will  be  all  aglow,  and  your  heart 
will  be  all  on  fii'e,  and  your  very  body  will 


64        THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

tremble  and  quiver  with  the  deep  and 
strong  emotion  which  is  working  in  you, 
and  you  will  think  that  surely  now  you 
have  lifted  up  the  people  out  of  their 
spiritual  apathy  and  dulness  to  seek  fu^st 
the  Kingdom  of  God ;  and  then  you  will 
take  up  the  collection,  and  you  will  see 
how  much  you  have  lifted  up  —  the 
people. 

Now,  I  am  not  saying  these  things  to 
discourage  you,  young  gentlemen,  I  am 
saying  them  rather  to  encourage  you  by 
telling  you  about  them  beforehand,  so  that 
you  may  not  be  discouraged  when  hereafter 
you  meet  and  experience  them.  The  phy- 
sician is  not  discouraged  —  recurring  to 
the  simile  which  I  used  at  the  beginning  — 
when  he  knows  what  that  sickness  is  which 
he  is  expected  to  treat  and  cure.  Why, 
that  is  half  the  battle ;  and  he  cannot  cure 
it  unless  he  does  know.  Neither  can  you  ; 
and  my  purpose  in  this  lecture  has  been  to 
try  to  show  you  what  that  sickness  is  which 
you  are  to  try  to  cure.  It  is  not  enough  to 
say  that  it  is  sin.  Sin  is  the  source  of  all 
sickness.  And  yet  there  are  different  sick- 
nesses, social  as  well  as  physical,  and  they 
are  called  by  different  names ;  and  my  pur- 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PRESENT       65 

pose  has  been  to  tell  you  something  about 
the  present  social  ailment,  and  to  give  you, 
as  well  as  I  could,  a  diagnosis  of  it.  It  has 
been,  I  know,  a  very  partial  and  imperfect 
diagnosis,  and  has  not  covered  all  the  symp- 
toms of  the  case.  But  I  have  shown  you 
some  of  the  symptoms,  the  chief  of  which, 
and  perhaps  the  most  dangerous,  from  your 
point  of  view  at  least,  is  this :  that  the  pa- 
tient to  whom  you  minister,  and  whom  you 
hope  to  cure,  does  not  always  want  to  be 
cured,  or  believe  that  you  can  cure  him,  and 
therefore  does  not  always  call  you  in  to 
prescribe.  And  yet  the  patient  needs  you, 
and  what  you  have  to  give,  or  what  you 
have  to  tell;  your  Cliiistian  message  he 
needs.  He  cannot  get  on  without  it;  or 
he  cannot  get  on  well  without  it.  The 
men  of  to-day  need  religion  as  much  as  the 
men  of  yesterday.  They  do  not  need  to 
have  it  presented  to  them  in  precisely  the 
same  manner,  but  they  need  it.  They  need 
it  in  temptation,  in  weakness  and  darkness 
and  depression,  in  the  conflict  fierce  and 
sharp  of  the  modern  competitive  life.  They 
need  it  to  keep  them  pure  ;  they  need  it  to 
keep  them  clean,  morally  pure  and  clean ; 
to  keep  in  due  control  the  passions  of  the 

5 


66         THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

body,  which  without  the  restraint  of  reli- 
gious hope  and  faith  are  apt,  especially  in 
these  days  of  luxurious  living,  to  break 
away  and  get  dominion  over  them.  And 
it  is  just  as  true  now  as  it  ever  was,  that 
the  visible  which  does  not  rest  on  the 
invisible  is  apt  to  become  the  bestial. 
Scepticism  concerning  another  world  and 
sensuousness  in  this  world  are  aj)t  to  go 
together.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  a 
Don  Juan,  the  sensuousness  fu'st,  and  the 
scepticism  last.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  case 
of  a  Faust,  the  scepticism  first,  and  the 
sensuousness  last.  But  whichever  be  the 
beginning,  or  whichever  be  the  end,  there 
is  an  affinity  between  them ;  and,  not  al- 
ways, —  it  would  be  an  exaggeration  to 
say  that,  —  but  usually,  they  sooner  or  later 
meet ;  and  the  person,  or  the  people,  or  the 
age  which  is  not  walking  in  this  world  in 
the  light  of  a  world  beyond,  is  apt  to  become 
in  time  a  coarse  and  sensuous  age.  Its 
pleasures  will  show  it;  its  pictures  will 
show  it ;  its  works  of  art  will  show  it ;  its 
novels,  its  stories,  its  letters,  its  theatres, 
its  operas,  its  conversations,  its  di-awing- 
rooms  will  show  it,  and  the  realism  of 
which  it  boasts  will  become  sooner  or  later 


THE  FREACHER  AND    THE  rUESENT       67 

the  realism  of  impudicity  and  immodesty, 
of  filth  and  mud !  And  with  this  realism 
of  impudicity,  which  is  coming  to  be  some- 
what symptomatic  of  our  modern  life,  there 
is  another  and  kindred  symptom,  namely,  a 
feeling  of  sadness  or  weariness,  and  hardly 
worth-whileness,  which  the  vision  of  the 
whole  physical  universe  without  the  vision 
of  God  and  another  world  does  not  and 
cannot  relieve.  "Praise  the  Lord,  O  my 
soul!"  exclaims  the  Hebrew  seer;  "let all 
that  is  witliin  me  join  to  bless  His  holy 
name !  "  as  with  adoring  wonder  he  looks 
at  the  starry  skies,  because  he  sees  re- 
vealed the  glory  of  God  in  the  skies,  wliile 
the  greatest  literary  seer  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  looking  at  the  same  starry  skies, 
says  to  liis  friend,  Charles  Lamb  by  his 
side,  "  Oh,  mon,  it  is  a  sair  sight ! "  So 
it  is,  cold,  cheerless,  overwhelmingly  sad, 
if  instead  of  revealing  to  us  the  glory  of 
God  and  another  world,  day  unto  day 
uttering  His  speech,  and  night  after  night 
showing  forth  His  knowledge  ;  it  only  re- 
veals the  glory  and  greatness  of  man,  of 
Newton  and  Copernicus  and  Kepler,  and 
the  other  men  of  genius  who  have  contril> 
uted  to  the  ascertainment  of  its  laws. 


68        THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

That,  I  say,  is  the  sadness,  in  spite  of  all 
its  enrichment  and  enlightenment,  which 
seems  to  be  resting  so  heavily  on  mnch  of 
our  modern  life.  As  much,  then,  as  ever, 
if  not  indeed  more,  men  to-day  need  that 
light  of  another  world  wliich  nearly  two 
thousand  years  ago  appeared  in  Jesus 
Christ.  Quietly,  gently,  then  it  came, 
making  no  sound  or  noise,  as  the  light 
always  comes,  — 

"  It  sparkles  on  the  morning's  million  gems  of  dew, 
It  flings  itself  into  the  shower  of  noon, 
It  weaves  its  gold  into  the  cloud  of  sunset, 
Yet  not  a  sound  is  heard." 

So  it  came  then,  and  so  it  comes  now,  into 
the  morning,  noon,  and  sunset  of  human 
life  on  earth.  And  so,  too,  young  gentle- 
men, it  must  shine  through  us,  not  cliiefly 
by  the  noise  and  clamor  of  our  theological 
strife  and  ecclesiastical  contention  or  as- 
sumption, but  by  trying  as  well  as  .we  can 
to  live  and  teach  and  preach  as  He  lived 
and  taught  who  was  then,  and  is  now,  the 
Light  and  the  Life  of  the  world. 


THE 

PREACHER  AND   HIS   MESSAGE 


THE 
PREACHER  AND   HIS   MESSAGE 

"\  7[ /"HAT  slioulcl  be  the  message  of  the 
Christian  pulpit   to-day,  and   how 
shoukl  the  preacher  preach  it  ? 

These  seem  at  first  like  simple,  if  not 
superfluous,  questions,  with  only  one  an- 
swer to  them.  For  it  is  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  which  the  preacher  is  sent 
to  preach,  and  which,  therefore,  he  must 
preach.  That,  and  that  alone,  must  be  his 
word  to  men,  must  be  to  them  his  mes- 
sage. But  suppose  they  are  not  interested 
in  his  message  ?  Must  he  still  continue  to 
preacli  it?  Surely  he  must,  whether  the 
people  hear,  or  whether  they  refuse  to  hear. 
But  suppose  he  can  preach  it  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  them  hear,  or  make  them 
willing  to  hear,  ready  and  desirous  to  hear, 
ought  he  then  to  preach  it  in  that  way? 
That  depends  upon  what  the  way  is.  If 
it  is  a  right  way,  yes.  If  it  is  a 
wrong  way,  no.  Preaching  is  not  an 
end  in  itself,  it  is  only  a  means  to  an  end. 


72        THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

This  distinction  is,  I  fear,  sometimes  over- 
looked, and  some  there  are  who  think,  or 
who  apparently  think,  that  the  great  desid- 
eratum (if  not  the  greatest  and  only)  in 
the  evangelization  of  the  community,  is 
simply  to  get  the  people  into  the  way  of 
going  to  church.  And  therefore  they  re- 
sort to  many  and  various  expedients  for 
the  accomplishment  of  that  purpose ,  —  and 
some  of  them,  too,  expedients  of  very  ques- 
tionable propriety,  and  others  again  not 
questionable  at  all,  but  cheap,  vulgar,  sen- 
sational, and  unquestionably  bad.  The  end, 
they  seem  to  think,  justifies  the  means ; 
and  the  end  here  is  simply  going  to  church. 
But  that  is  not  the  end.  It  is,  as  I  have 
said,  only  a  means  to  an  end ;  and  whether 
or  not  people  should  go  to  church  depends 
a  little,  depends  a  good  deal,  on  what  hap- 
pens after  they  get  there. 

I  can  conceive  of  cases  where  it  would' 
be  better  for  people  not  to  go  to  church, 
and  where  less  harm  would  come  to  them 
by  not  going  than  by  going.  Have  you 
not  yourselves  sometimes  found  it  so? 
Have  you  not  yourselves  been  made  some- 
times to  feel,  after  you  had  been  to  some 
particular   church,    that   what    you    heard 


THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  MESSAGE       73 

from  the  pulpit  there  had  not  only  done 
you  no  good,  but  had  actually  done  you 
liarm,  had  irritated  and  exasperated  you, 
and  made  you  not  better,  but  worse  ?    I  am 
sure  you  must  have  had  such  an  experience 
as  that;  we  have  all  had  such  an  expe- 
rience.    And  then,  again,  I  am  sure  we 
have  all   had  another  and  very  different 
experience,  and  have  felt  as  we  listened  to 
some  men  preach  that  we  would  like  to  listen 
to  them  often.     They  helped  us  so  much ; 
they   inspired  us;  they  seemed  to   touch 
and   awaken   what  was  best   and   purest, 
what  was  divinest  in  us,  and  to  brinof  it 
out  and  express  it,  and  to  make  it,  for  a 
time  at  least,  ascendent  and  dominant  in 
us.     And  why?      What    was   the   secret 
of    their  power?     They   may   have   been 
eloquent    in    the   ordinary   sense    of    the 
term,  or  they  may  not  have  been.     They 
may  have  been  learned  and  scholarly,  or 
the}^  may  not   have   been.      Nor  did   we 
always  agree,  perhaps,  with  what  we  heard 
them  say.     And  yet,  somehow,  they  always 
managed  to  make  us  feel  as  though  they 
had  a  personal  message  for  us.     And  so, 
indeed,  it  was  a  personal  message  for  us,  — 
simply  because  it  was  their  own  personal 


74    THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

message,  a  message  wliicli  tliey  themselves, 
in  tlieir  deepest  and  innermost  souls  liad 
found  and  felt  to  be  good,  had  found  and 
felt  to  be  true  ;  and  which,  therefore,  pro- 
duced an  echoing  response  in  us.  It  nia,j 
have  been  some  truth  which  we  already 
knew,  some  very  familiar  truth ;  and  yet  as 
the  preacher  preached  it,  it  seemed  like 
something  new  and  to  have  in  it  something 
new.  And  it  did  have  in  it  something 
new;  it  had  the  preacher  in  it.  He  had 
made  the  truth  his  own.  He  had  wrought 
it  out,  or  fought  it  out,  and  won  it  for  him- 
self, and  it  was  like  a  piece  of  liimself.  He 
was  not  simply  defining  some  article  of  the 
creed.  He  was  not  simply  disclosing  and 
making  known  "the  faith  once  delivered 
to  the  saints,"  nor  telling  us  what  had  been 
"  always  and  everywhere  and  by  all  re- 
ceived." He  was  telling  us  rather  what  he, 
by  his  own  living  thought,  by  his  own  liv- 
ing experience,  had  made  his  very  own.  It 
was  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  we  saw  it, 
and  felt  it,  and  were  satisfied.  This  does 
not  imply  that  the  substance  of  his  preach- 
ing was  something  new  and  different  from 
what  was  in  the  creeds,  or  something  new 
and  different  from  what  was  in  the  theology 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE      75 

of  the  church  to  which  he  belonged ;  but 
it  does  imply  that  the  truth  which  others 
had  found,  and  which  had  been  by  them 
expressed  in  a  theology  or  a  creed,  had 
also  found  him,  and  become  incarnated  in 
liim.  And  it  was  his  message  to  us,  as 
well  as  the  creed's  message.  And  he,  the 
preacher,  the  man,  the  living  man  and 
preacher,  was  living  in  the  creed,  and  mak- 
ing the  creed  live,  and  breathe,  and  move, 
and  talk.  And  as  a  living  thing  we  heard 
it,  and  as  a  living  thing  we  felt  it,  —  not  as 
truth  in  abstract  form,  but  as  truth  in  form 
concrete ;  as  truth  in  flesh  and  blood.  And 
that  was  his  secret  and  power,  or  the  secret 
of  his  power.  It  is  always  the  secret  of 
power.  And  when  the  pulpit  loses  that 
power  it  will  have  none,  or  none  at  least  to 
differentiate  it  from  other  didactic  agen- 
cies, and  to  make  it  a  unique  and  distinc- 
tive force  in  the  world. 

Creeds  are  good.  Theologies  are  good. 
But  creeds  however  scriptural,  and  theolo- 
gies however  sound,  are  not  of  themselves 
enough.  ''  I  adjure  you  by  the  Jesus  whom 
Paul  preaches  "  is  not  a  formula  that  will 
exorcise  the  evil  spirits  and  make  the  men 
who  hear  obedient  to  the  faith.    The  creed. 


76         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

they  will  say,  we  know,  we  have  always 
known,  and  the  theology  we  know ;  but 
who  and  what  are  ye  ? 

Plagiarism  in  a  preacher  or  any  one  else 
is  generally  and  justly  regarded  as  a  very 
reprehensible  thing ;  and  when  we  find  out 
(and  we  usually  do  find  it  out)  that  a  man 
has  been  stealing  the  words  of  another,  we 
have  no  further  use  for  that  man.  But 
there  is  a  plagiarism  in  theology  as  well  as 
a  plagiarism  in  language,  and  it  is  possible 
not  only  to  steal  from  books,  but  also  to 
steal  from  creeds.  And  the  preacher  who 
goes  week  after  week  to  some  venerable 
storehouse  of  accumulated  doctrines,  and 
opens  the  door,  and  takes  some  doctrinal 
treasure  out,  and  gives  it  forth  to  the  peo- 
ple, simply  because  it  is  the  doctrine  of  his 
church,  without  having  fii'st,  in  some  sense 
real  and  true,  made  that  doctrine  his  own, 
is  a  plagiaristic  preacher ;  and  a  plagiaristic 
preacher  is  not  an  effective  preacher.  And 
yet,  it  seems  to  me  that  much  of  our  preach- 
ing to-day  is  of  that  plagiaristic  kind.  It  is 
the  preaching  of  things  and  doctrines  which 
we  have  taken  without  buying,  and  which 
we  accept  and  hold  because  others  accept 
and  hold  them,  —  the  school,  the  sect,  the 


THE  PREACHER  AND  H/S   MESSAGE       77 

party,  the  church  to  which  we  belong ;  and 
it  is  their  faith  we  preach,  and  not  ours. 
Perhaps  we  do  not  think  so,  but  it  is  so 
more  than  we  think;  and  that  is  the  way 
in  which  it  impresses  those  who  hear  us. 
They  almost  knew  beforehand  that  we 
would  say  what  we  do  say,  because  we  are 
Baptists,  or  Congregationalists,  or  Episco- 
palians ;  and  that  is  what  Episcopalians, 
and  Congregationalists,  and  Baptists  usu- 
ally say  and  are  expected  to  say,  and  there- 
fore they  expected  us  to  say  it,  and  they 
are  not  disappointed  in  us.  Neither  are 
they  much  impressed,  or  helped,  or  quick- 
ened by  us  ;  and  after  a  while  they  get  tired 
of  hearing  us,  and  they  do  not  come  to  hear 
us.  And  why  should  they  ?  They  know  all 
that  we  have  to  say  just  as  well  as  we  do,  — 
the  scheme  of  salvation,  sanctification,  re- 
demption, the  new  birth,  the  atonement, 
the  doctrine  of  tlie  divine  decrees,  the  his- 
toric episcopate,  the  sacrament  of  baptism, 
and  tlie  Lord's  Supper,  and  the  decrees  of 
the  General  Councils,  and  the  inspiration 
of  the  Bible.  They  have  heard  it  from 
their  youth  up,  and  know  it  all,  I  say,  just 
as  well  as  we  do.  And  why  indeed  should 
they  come,  to  hear  it  and  know   it  some 


78         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

more  ?  And  they  do  not  come.  And  then 
it  is  that  we  are  tempted  to  resort  to  those 
questionable  expedients  to  wliich  I  have 
referred,  such  as  advertising  to  preach  on 
queer  and  fantastic  texts  and  sensational 
topics,  with  a  view  to  making  them  come, 
and  wliich,  though  successful  in  drawing, 
perhaps,  are  not  successful  in  edifying,  and 
which  cheapen  the  pulpit,  and  degrade  it  in 
the  judgment  of  sober-minded  people. 

What  then  shall  we  do  ?  Shall  we  give 
up  doctrinal  preacliiug,  and  try  some  other 
kind,  not  sensational,  but  at  the  same  time 
not  doctrinal  ?  By  no  means.  We  cannot 
give  it  up.  All  preacliing  is  doctrinal,  and 
must  be.  It  may  not  be  doctrinal  after  the 
standard  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  or  the 
standard  of  the  Westminster  Confession ; 
but  it  is  doctrinal,  nevertheless,  for  doc- 
trine means  simply  a  faith,  a  conviction,  a 
belief,  and  no  man  can  preach  without 
some  faith  or  belief.  What  people  mean, 
I  think,  when  they  say  they  do  not  care 
for  doctrinal  preaching  is  tliis :  they  do 
not  care  for  that  kind  of  doctrinal  preach- 
ing wliich  has  in  it  more  of  the  personality 
of  Calvin,  or  Luther,  or  Athanasius,  than 
it  has   of  the   preacher  liimself.      Stolen 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE       79 

thunder  is  poor  thunder ;  and  so  is  stolen 
doctrine.  It  does  not  go  off  well;  or  it 
goes  off  by  itself,  simply  making  a  noise, 

—  "Sound  and  fury,  signifying  nothing;" 
and  there  is  no  lightning  in  it.  It  must 
have  been  an  impressive  thing  to  hear  Mar- 
tin Luther  preach,  or  to  hear  Athanasius 
preach;  and  so  it  would  be  now.  But  it 
is  not  at  all  impressive  to  hear  Lutheran- 
ism  preached,  or  Athanasianism  preached, 

—  to  hear  a  system  preached.  That  is  the 
kind  of  preaching  to  which  the  people  ob- 
ject when  they  object  to  doctrinal  preach- 
ing, and  to  wliich  they  ought  to  object. 

The  distinctive  power  of  the  pulpit  is  its 
personality.  Not  primarily  what  it  says, 
though  that,  of  course,  is  important,  but 
who  says  it;  otherwise  a  phonograph  or  a 
telephone  would  do.  Truth,  especially 
moral  truth,  is  never  very  effective  until  we 
see  it  alive,  —  not  truth  in  the  fine  discourse, 
or  in  the  admirable  essay,  but  truth  in  the 
soul,  "that  inmost  centre,"  as  Browning 
says,  "  where  truth  abides  in  fulness,"  and 
where,  as  from  a  throne,  it  speaks  with 
authority  to  us.  The  orator  who  moves  us 
most  is  the  orator  who  is  moved  most ;  not 
the  orator  who  displays  the  most  emotion, 


80    THE  PREACHER   AND  HIS  PLACE 

but  whose  own  personality  is  kindled  most 
l)y  his  thought.  "  If,"  sa3^s  Horace  to  the 
sons  of  Piso,  "  you  wish  me  to  weep,  there 
must  be,  first  of  all,  a  genuine  grieving 
in  you."  "Whoever,"  says  John  Milton, 
"would  not  be  frustrate  of  his  desire  to 
Avrite  well  in  poetry,  must  be  a  poet  in  life. 
Other  things  being  equal,  that  will  be  the 
greatest  and  most  effective  verse,  the  soul 
of  whose  author  is  set  on  fire  by  the  senti- 
ment which  it  expresses."  And  as  it  is 
with  poetry,  and  art,  and  oratorj^,  and  liter- 
ature in  general,  so  is  it  with  preaching. 
Life  responds  to  life.  And  how  can  the 
truth  we  preach  be  made  quick  and  alive 
except  by  wrestling  for  it,  or  wrestling 
with  it,  and  thus  getting  it  into  and  mak- 
ing it  a  part  of  ourselves,  so  that  we  our- 
selves go  with  the  truth  we  preach,  and 
make  it  a  personal  force  ? 

This  was  the  power  of  Jesus.  The 
truths  He  preached  and  taught  were  not, 
for  the  most  part,  new.  Isaiah  had  taught 
them  before  Him,  and  Moses,  and  all  the 
prophets.  And  not  only  by  the  prophets  of 
Israel  had  many  of  those  truths  been  taught, 
but  by  the  prophets  of  Greece,  India,  and 
China,  and   the   Wise    I\Ien  of   the  East. 


THE  PREACUER  AND  HIS   MESSAGE       81 

But  when  Jesus  taught  those  truths  they 
were  okl  as  though  they  were  new.  For 
He  did  not  teach  as  the  scribes,  quoting 
texts  and  authorities.  He  was  His  own 
authority,  and  He  spake  with  authority,  — 
not  with  the  authority  of  supernaturahsm 
merely,  but  the  authority  of  personality,  a 
personality  which  had  made  those  truths 
its  own,  and  which  gave  them  life,  and 
power,  and  a  confu-matory  sanction  that 
needed  no  other  sanction.  Surely  we  know 
what  that  means,  though  it  is  hard  to  de- 
scribe it.  We  have  often,  however,  felt  it,  — 
not  in  the  case  of  the  pulpit  merely,  but  in 
matters  outside  of  the  pulpit.  A  person 
tells  us  something  wliich  he  has  heard 
from  some  one  else,  and  that  person  again 
from  some  one  else, — of  an  accident,  per- 
haps, or  a  rescue,  or  some  heroic  deed,  —  and 
the  information  is  trustworth}'^,  and  we  be- 
lieve it.  But  it  is  second,  or  third,  or  fourth- 
hand  information,  and  not  first-hand.  And 
while  perhaps  it  has  gained  something  in 
the  telling  in  the  way  of  exaggeration,  and 
is  more  verbose  and  rhetorical,  it  has  also 
lost  sometliing.  It  has  lost  much ;  and 
never  do  we  know  how  inucli  until  we 
hear  him  tell  it  who  has  himself  seen  it, 

6 


82         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

who  Avas  an  eye-witness  of  it,  and  who 
gives  to  us  his  own  eye-witness  version  of 
it.  His  words  may  be  poor  and  few,  and 
with  stammering  tongue  may  he  speak ; 
and  yet  his  words  have  power,  and  his 
stammering  tongue  has  eloquence.  And 
something  there  is  in  his  voice,  his  accent, 
his  gesture,  his  empliasis,  it  is  hard  to  say 
what  it  is,  something  perliaps  in  his  soul, 
which  touches  the  soul  in  us,  and  awakens 
the  soul  in  us,  and  life  responds  to  life, 
and  we  know  not  only  that  the  man  is 
speaking  truth,  but  we  feel  the  power  of 
truth,  and  he  speaks  with  authority  to  us. 

This,  I  say,  was  the  method  of  Jesus. 
He  was  not  a  mere  teacher  of  the  truth, 
He  was  an  eye-witness  of  it.  He  saw  it 
not  merely  tln'ough  the  medium  of  the 
observation  of  others,  but  tlirough  the 
medium  of  His  own  observation.  He  saw 
it,  as  it  were,  "  first-hand  ; "  not  as  it  came 
from  man,  but  as  it  came  from  God,  as  it 
came  from  God  to  Him,  as  the  Spirit  of 
God  taught  it,  and  made  Him  feel  and 
know  it,  made  it  indeed  His,  or  rather 
made  it  Him.  And  we,  too,  are  to  be  eye- 
witnesses of  the  truth,  as  we  see  it  in  Him 
with  our  own  eyes,  with  our  own  minds. 


THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  MESSAGE       83 

and  hearts,  and  souls,  with  our  own  moral, 
and  spiritual,  and  intellectual  natures,  and 
not  as  indirectly  and  obliquely  we  see  it  in 
Him  through  others.  Here  at  least,  it 
seems  to  me,  whatever  may  be  thought  of 
it  in  other  respects,  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
Apostolical  Succession  true.  Those  who 
preach  Jesus  Cluist  must  be  themselves, 
as  the  apostles  were,  eye-witnesses  of  Jesus 
Christ.  That  is  what  constitutes  apos- 
tleship,  —  eye-witnessing  of  Jesus  Christ ; 
and  those  who  are  the  successors  of  the 
fu-st  aj)ostles  must  succeed  them  also  in 
that.  They  must  be  not  only  historical 
successors,  but  sj^iritual  successors.  The 
former  kind  of  succession  may  be  neces- 
sary in  the  judgment  of  some  of  us  to  pre- 
serve the  polity  of  the  Church,  but  the 
latter  kind  is  necessary  to  preserve  the 
pulpit  of  the  Church,  whether  it  be  a  Con- 
gregational or  an  Episcopal  pulpit.  That 
was  the  power  of  the  first  pulpit  in  Clu-ist- 
endom,  and  it  will  be  the  power  of  the 
last.  And  from  first  to  last  men  feel  that 
power  and  respond  to  it.  That,  I  presume, 
is  what  they  mean  when  they  say,  as  they 
often  do,  that  they  want  practical  preach- 
ing.     Now,  it  is  very  difficult   to   define 


\ 


84        THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

practical  preaching.  No  two  persons,  per- 
haps, would  deiine  it  in  the  same  way  ;  for 
what  would  he  practical  to  one  man,  in 
one  set  of  circumstances,  would  not  be 
practical  to  another  man  in  another  set  of 
circumstances.  It  is,  I  believe,  the  author 
of  "  Ecce  Homo  "  who  says  that  practical 
preaching  for  him  would  be  preaching  on 
the  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  —  "  In  the  be- 
ginning was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was 
with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  All 
things  were  made  by  Him,  and  without 
Him  was  not  anytliing  made  that  was 
made."  That  was  what  he  would  call 
practical  preacliing,  and  what  most  of 
those  in  our  congregations  would  call  very 
unpractical.  And  so,  again,  preaching  on 
the  forgiveness  of  enemies  would  not  be 
practical  preacliing  to  the  man  who  has  no 
enemies,  or  who  has  no  malice  against 
them.  Practical  preaching  for  the  old 
would  not  be  practical  preacliing  for  the 
young.  Practical  preaching  for  the  sick 
would  not  be  practical  preaching  for  the 
well.  Practical  preacliing  for  the  rich  and 
comfortable  would  not  be  practical  preach- 
ing for  the  poor  and  uncomfortable.  It 
is  not  easy  to  define  practical   preaching. 


TllK  I'REACHER  AND  11 J S  MESSAGE       85 

It  depends  so  much  on  the  time,  and  the 
place,  and  the  congregation,  which  is  gen- 
erally very  much  mixed,  and  a  score  of 
other  things  which  the  preacher  cannot 
Avell  have  in  mind  when  he  is  preparing 
his  sermon.  Wliat  men  really  mean  when 
they  say  they  want  practical  preaching 
is  that  they  want  personal  preaching,  —  ^ 
preaching  that  has  in  it  the  personality  of 
the  preacher.  Perhaps  they  would  not  put 
it  that  way,  but  that  is  the  way  I  put 
it;  for  that,  it  seems  to  me,  is  practical 
preaching,  and  the  best  kind  of  practical 
preaching.  Nor  does  it  matter  much  Avliat 
the  particular  theme  is,  —  the  doctrine  of  the 
Logos,  or  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement, 
or  the  doctrine  of  the  forgiveness  of  inju- 
ries. The  people,  as  they  hear,  are  stirred 
and  kindled  by  it,  because  the  preacher 
himself  is  stirred  and  kindled  by  it.  It 
is  liis  life  going  into  them.  And,  again, 
life  responds  to  life,  and  enthusiasm  to 
enthusiasm. 

That  is  the  distinctive  thing  in  preach- 
ing. It  involves,  of  course,  the  giving  of 
instruction.  But  it  involves  something 
more  than  the  giving  of  instruction,  for 
that,  as  we  have  seen,  can  be  given  in  other 


86    THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

ways.  With  the  giving  of  instruction 
there  should  be  the  giving  of  life,  —  the 
preacher's  life,  his  moral  and  spiritual  life, 
and  intellectual  life,  —  as  the  Spirit  of  God 
has  awakened  his  moral,  and  spiritual,  and 
intellectual  life. 

I  spoke  in  the  last  lecture  of  the  mate- 
rialistic temper  of  modern  society,  and  how 
it  is  disposed  to  judge  and  measure  all 
things  by  standards  of  material  value. 
That  is  the  ailment  which  the  Christian 
minister  to-day  must  try  to  cure.  And 
how  must  he  try  to  cure  it  ?  Must  he  try 
to  show  the  wrongness  or  the  falseness  of 
materialism  by  a  philosophic  discoursing 
about  it?  Must  he  be  forever  dragging 
what  he  believes  to  be  a  better  and  truer 
philosophy  up  the  pulpit  stairs,  and  dis- 
cussing before  miscellaneous  congrega- 
tions, in  philosophic  phrase  and  dialect,  that 
subtle,  agnostic  teaching  which  is  to-day 
so  penetrating  and  pervasive,  and  which  is 
doing  so  much  to  undermine  the  spiritual 
foundations  of  life,  and  destroy  its  spirit- 
ual ideals  ?  No,  I  do  not  think  so ;  although 
I  think  he  should  be  competent  to  do  it  at 
proper  times  and  in  proper  places,  and  that 
his  training  is  sadly  deficient  if  he  is  not 


TIIIC  PREACHER  AND   HIS   MESSAGE       87 

competent  to  do  it.     But  for  the  preacher 
in  the  pulpit  there  is  a  more  excellent  way. 
There,  it  seems  to  me,  he  is   not  so  much 
to  talk  in  a  philosophic  way  about  spiritual 
forces  and  entities,  as  to  be  a  kind  of  spir- 
itual force  and  entity  himself ;  thus  touch- 
ing, and  quickening,  and  making  real  the 
spiritual   forces  and   entities   in   those  to 
whom  he  speaks.      This   is   not  an   easy 
thing  to  do :  and  because  it  is  not  easy  we 
are  sometimes  tempted  to  do  what  is  not  so 
difficult,  and  that  is  to  try  to  meet  a  philo- 
sopliic   or   practical    materialism   with   an 
ecclesiastical    materialism.      Here,    again, 
the    Roman    Catholic    Church    shows    its 
knowledge   of  human  nature.      It   repre- 
sents God  to  the  eye,  or  professes  to  do  so 
at  least.     It  makes  Him  visible  in  actual 
flesh  and  blood  upon  the  altar.     It  gives 
Him  shape  and  form  for  men  to  see  and 
behold  with  physical  sight  and  vision,  and 
in  the  act   of  beholding  to  worship   and 
adore.     That  is  the  charm,  to  the  devout 
Roman  Catholic  worshipper,  of  the  sacrifice 
of  the  Mass,  that  it  makes  Jesus  Christ  live 
and  die  before  his  very  eyes.     And  the  sol- 
emn scene  that  was  enacted  upon  Calvary 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago  is  re-enacted 


88         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

for  him  Avitli  all  its  sad  and  tragic  realism 
in  the  midst  of  the  modern  world.  "  To 
me,"  says  John  Henry  Newman,  "  nothing 
is  so  consoling,  so  tlnilling,  so  uplifting,  so 
overcoming,  as  the  Mass.  I  could  attend 
it  forever  and  not  be  tired ;  for  it  is  not  a 
jnere  form  of  words,  it  is  a  great  action, 
the  greatest  action  that  ever  can  be  on  earth. 
It  is  not  the  Invocation  merely;  but,  if  I 
dare  use  the  word,  the  'Evocation,'  the 
calling  out,  the  manifestation  in  visible 
form  to  the  physical  eye  of  that  Eternal  One 
becoming  actually  present  upon  the  altar 
in  our  flesh  and  blood,  before  whom  angels 
bow  and  devils  tremble !  "  That  is  what 
it  meant  to  him ;  and  although  my  whole 
nature  revolts  at  the  materialism  of  the  doc- 
trine that  underlies  it,  I  think  I  can  under- 
stand hoAV  —  not  upon  a  cultivated  mind 
like  Newman's,  but  upon  ujicultivated  or 
half  cultivated  minds  —  it  can  have  such 
wonderful  power,  just  because  it  is  so  ap- 
pealing to  the  physical  senses. 

There  is  another  phenomenon  in  our 
modern  society  which  points  in  the  same 
direction,  which  calls  itself  by  the  name  of 
Spiritualism,  but  which  is  in  fact  the  gross- 
est materialism.     It   is  a   worse   form  of 


27//';  tlUCACIIER  AND    l/JS   MKSHAGE       89 

materialism  even  tlian  that  wliich  underlies 
the  doctrine  of  the  Mass,  disclosing  such 
an  utter  want  of  spirituality  on  the  part 
of  those  who  accept  it  that  they  are  not  able 
apparently  to  believe  in  the  existence  of 
s[)irit  unless  they  can  see  and  touch  it, 
and  hear  it  "  mutter  "  and  talk.  And  what 
a  commentary  it  is  upon  the  materialistic 
temper  of  modern  life  that  so  many  other- 
wise sensible  people  to-day  should  accept 
a  sign  so  puerile  to  strengthen  their  waver- 
ing faitli  in  the  reality  of  a  spiritual  world, 
and  to  save  themselves  from  the  sheer 
despair  of  having  no  faith  at  all. 

The  same  materialistic  method  is  im- 
plicit, I  tliink,  in  much  that  goes  by  the 
name  of  Ritualism,  which  is  the  attempt 
to  make  religion  more  believable  and  real- 
izable by  making  it  more  appealing  to  the 
physical  senses.  It  is  the  attempt,  when 
rightly  interpreted,  so  it  seems  to  me,  to 
cure  a  worldly  materialism  b}^  an  ecclesias- 
tical materialism.  But  there  is  in  my 
judgment  another  and  more  effective  way, 
and  that  is  for  the  preacher,  as  the  expo- 
nent of  religion,  to  become  liimself  in  his 
preaching  the  expression  of  a  spiritual  force, 
and   the   embodiment  of    a  spiritual   life, 


90         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

wliose  presence  thus  in  the  pulpit  will 
awaken  the  spiritual  life  Avhich  is  latent  in 
those  who  hear  him.  This  may  seem  to 
some  of  you  a  vague  kind  of  method,  but 
it  is  a  real  one.  Do  we  not  know  what  it 
is  to  come  into  the  consciousness  of  new 
worlds,  and  the  possession  of  new  ideals 
and  faiths,  by  coming  into  contact  with  the 
living  presences  wliich  embody  them  ?  We 
stand  before  the  patriot  who  has  done  some 
great  unselfish,  and  patriotic  act,  and  for 
the  time  at  least  we  believe  there  is  nothing 
more  real  and  more  admirable  than  patriot- 
ism. We  stand  before  the  soldier  who, 
with  a  record  of  courage,  of  fine  and 
splendid  courage,  has  just  come  home  from 
the  wars,  and  for  the  time  at  least  we  be- 
lieve there  is  nothing  so  real  and  admir- 
able as  courage.  Pure  and  unalloyed 
goodness,  nobleness,  unselfishness,  or  dis- 
interestedness of  motive  and  conduct,  — 
perhaps  as  a  rule  we  do  not  much  believe 
in  these  things,  because  as  a  rule,  perhaps, 
we  do  not  much  see  them.  But  some 
day  we  do  see  them;  we  stand  in  their 
presence,  we  look  up  into  their  eyes :  they 
speak  to  us,  and  we  hear  them ;  they  touch 
us,  and  we  feel  them;    and  we  bow  and 


TriE  PREACHER  AND   TIIS  MESSAGE       91 

kneel  before  them,  and  ask  tliem  to  give 
their  benediction  to  us. 

Now,  in  some  such  way  as  that  must 
the  preacher  of  Jesus  Christ  try  to  bring 
the  people  to  whom  he  preaclies  into  the 
consciousness  of  that  high  and  pure  ideal 
life  which  Jesus  Christ  was,  which  Jesus 
Chi-ist  is.  That  life  must  be  in  his  preach- 
ing. And  the  people  to  whom  he  preaches 
must  feel  it  in  his  preaching,  and,  coming 
thus  into  contact  with  it,  they  will  for  a 
time  at  least  believe  in  the  reality  of  it. 
Ordinarily,  and  for  the  most  part,  they  are 
in  very  close  contact  with  things  of  a  differ- 
ent kind,  with  material  things  and  affairs, 
and  they  become  so  absorbed  in  those  mate- 
rial things  and  affairs  that  they  find  it  hard 
to  realize  other  things  and  affairs.  We  all 
know,  again,  what  that  is.  How  we  can  be- 
come so  deeply  engrossed  at  times  in  some 
one  line  of  conduct,  or  some  one  line  of 
thought,  as  not  to  see,  or  hear,  or  know 
what  is  going  on  about  us,  —  the  singing 
of  the  birds  on  the  trees,  the  forms  of  peo- 
ple passing  by  on  the  streets,  the  striking 
of  the  clock  on  the  stairs :  we  are  not  con- 
scious of  any  of  these  things.  They  are 
real,  and  true,  and  are  going  on  about  us, 


92         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

but  we  are  not  conscious  of  them ;  we  are 
conscious  only  of  that  one  thing  which  is 
going  on  so  vehemently  and  engrossingly 
in  us,  until  by  some  sharply  asserting  and 
interruptive  influx  of  life  from  the  world 
which  lies  outside,  that  part  of  our  nature 
which  had  been  asleep  is  quickened  and 
awakened  in  us.  So,  I  say,  must  the  pul- 
pit, in  order  to  have  and  perform  a  dis- 
tinctive mission  to-day,  become  somehow 
a  power  which  shall  break  in  upon  the 
engrossing  secular  life  of  men  and  women, 
and  make  them  feel  and  become  more 
spiritually  alive.  That,  it  seems  to  me, 
is  what  people  go  to  church  for.  They 
want  to  feel  themselves  more  alive,  to 
be  lifted  up  and  exalted  to  some  higher 
plane  of  life.  Then  with  that  warmer 
glow  of  life  in  them,  and  from  that  higher 
plane,  they  will  see  and  know  of  them- 
selves what  their  practical  duties  are, 
and  will  have  more  disposition  to  perform 
them. 

That  kind  of  preaching,  too,  as  I  have 
already  said,  is  authoritative.  It  authen- 
ticates itself.  For  whether  or  not  the 
people  who  hear  believe  what  the  preacher 
says,  they  believe  him.     They  cannot  help 


THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS   MESSAGE       93 

believing  him,  and  they  cannot  help  feeling 
and  responding  to  him,  and  he  does  them 
good  and  helps  them.  What  did  he  say  ? 
Well,  they  are  not  quite  sure  that  they 
know  what  he  said.  Did  he  not  say  such 
and  such  a  thing,  and  surely  you  do  not 
mean  to  tell  us  you  believe  that?  Yes, 
now  that  they  come  to  think  about  it 
they  remember  he  did  say  that,  or  some- 
thing like  it,  and  it  is  true  that  they  do 
not  believe  it.  But  then,  he  believed  it. 
Ah,  how  much  he  believed  it !  How  with 
his  whole  heart,  and  soul,  and  mind  he 
believed  it !  How  he  seemed  to  be  on  tire 
with  it ;  and  it  was,  they  sa}^  the  fire  they 
perceived,  and  not  the  fuel  that  kindled  it. 
They  almost  forget  what  the  fuel  was,  — 
at  least  they  did  not  notice  it  much  at  the 
time. 

I  am  interested  in  a  Rescue  Mission  in 
New  York,  and  go  there  at  times  to  speak 
to  the  men.  A  poor,  forlorn,  degraded, 
almost  helpless  and  hopeless,  set  of  men 
they  are.  They  have  lost  their  character, 
they  have  lost  their  reputation,  they  have 
lost  their  self-respect,  they  have  lost  eveiy- 
thing  except  their  souls,  or  except  that 
soul-instinct  which,  no  matter  how  down- 


94         THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

trodden,  and  bnried,  and  covered  np,  is 
in  every  man,  and  never  can  be  lost.  I 
find  it  very  hard  to  reach  and  tonch  those 
men.  But  there  is  a  little  woman  who 
cfoes  there  sometimes,  who  was  once  a 
member  of  the  Salvation  Army,  and  whose 
words  have  much  more  power  and  effect- 
iveness than  mine.  And  to  her  they 
always  listen  with  a  rapt  and  eager  listen- 
ing ;  and  often,  as  I  have  heard  her  talk, 
have  I  seen  those  hard,  stolid  faces  lighten, 
and  kindle,  and  glow,  as  though  from  be- 
neath the  rubbish  their  souls  were  coming 
out !  But  not  only  does  she  touch  and 
move  and  quicken  them,  she  also  touches 
me  as  very  few  preachers  do.  Her  theology 
is  not  mine  ;  it  is  in  some  respects  very 
different  from  mine.  Many  of  the  things 
which  she  says  seem  to  me  to  be  puerile 
and  crude ;  and  when  I  come  to  think  of 
them  afterwards,  I  am  sure  I  do  not  believe 
them,  and  could  not  believe  them.  But 
she  believes  them,  and  her  whole  person- 
ality seems  to  be  saturated  with  them,  and 
to  quiver  and  tremble  with  them  ;  and  the 
earnestness  with  which  she  speaks  is  not 
simulated  and  feigned,  but  most  intensely 
real.     And  it  is  that  real,  unfeigned,  and 


THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS   MESSAGE       95 

deep  personal  earnestness  which  touches 
me  as  well  as  othei'S,  and  makes  me  more 
alive. 

Now,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood 
as  saying  or  implying  for  a  moment  that 
it  makes  but  little  difference  what  one 
preaches,  if  only  he  believes  it  very  nmcli, 
and  is  very  much  in  earnest  about  it.  It 
does  make  a  difference,  and  a  very  great 
difference.  I  shall  have  something  to  say 
about  that  in  the  next  lecture.  Truth  is 
truth  always,  and  is  always  different  from 
error  ;  and  our  business  is  to  preach  truth, 
and  nothing  but  truth.  But  the  point  I 
am  making  is  this  :  that  the  distinctive 
power  of  the  pulpit  is  not  the  mere  preach- 
ing of  truth,  but  truth  so  preached  as  to  be 
preached  in  personalit}^ ;  truth  made  living,  - 
made  life  ;  and  that  even  when  it  is  not 
truth  that  the  pulpit  preaches,  or  not  trutli 
as  we  apprehend  it,  it  may  sometimes, 
and  does,  become  in  the  pulpit  a  power, 
and  a  spiritual  power,  wliich  awakens  a 
spiritual  power  or  a  spiritual  life  in  us.  Is 
not  this  the  reason  why  so  much  of  the 
homiletical  literature  of  the  past  fails  to- 
day as  we  hear  it  to  move  or  impress  us 
much  ?     It  was  impressive  at  the  time,  but 


96         THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

it  is  not  impressive  now.  It  was  impres- 
sive to  those  who  heard  it,  but  it  is  not 
impressive  to  us  who  are  only  able  to 
read  it.  "  We  are  often  amazed,"  says  the 
author  of  a  recent  '•''  Life  of  St.  Francis," 
"  on  reading  the  memoirs  of  those  who 
have  been  great  conquerors  of  souls,  to 
find  ourselves  remaining  cold ;  finding  in 
them  all  no  trace  of  animation  or  origi- 
nality. It  is  because  we  have  only  a  life- 
less relic  in  the  hand.  The  soul  is  gone. 
The  written  word  can  no  more  give  an 
idea  of  it  than  it  can  give  an  idea  of  a 
sonata  by  Beethoven  or  a  painting  by 
Rembrandt."  Yes,  the  soul  is  gone ;  and 
that  which  made  it  power,  so  distinctively 
and  effectively  power,  we  cannot  know 
and  feel ;  and  to  us  who  only  read  it,  it  is 
not  power. 

I  caution  you,  therefore,  young  gentle- 
men, against  the  tendency  to  introduce 
into  your  sermons  long  quotations  or  ex- 
tracts from  the  sermons  of  those  who  were 
thought,  and  justly  thought  in  their  day, 
to  be  such  eloquent  preachers.  Eloquent, 
indeed,  those  passages  Avere  when  spoken 
by  them,  because  by  them  they  were  spoken ; 
and   while  you  can  pvit  their  words  into 


THE  r REACH ER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE       97 

your  speech,  you  cannot  put  them  into 
your  speech;  and  the  only  true  way  to 
imitate  or  to  be  like  them  is  to  be  like  them 
in  being  yourselves.  God  spoke  to  them  , 
let  God  speak  to  you,  in,  through,  and  by 
you.  Then  will  your  message  be,  as  theirs 
was,  a  personal  message  to  men ;  and  you 
will  become  as  eloquent  as  it  is  possible  for 
you  to  become.  Every  man  in  tliis  world 
is  different  from  every  other  man ;  and 
every  preacher  is,  or  ouglit  to  be,  different 
from  every  other  preacher,  and  cannot  be 
a  true  and  effective  preacher  unless  in 
some  respects  he  is.  Copy,  therefore,  no 
one.  Take  no  one  for  your  model.  In 
that  way  failure  lies.  "  The  great  man," 
says  Emerson,  "is  the  man  who  reminds 
us  of  no  other  man."  And  the  great  or 
the  greatest  preacher  is  the  man  who 
reminds  us  of  no  other  preacher.  He  may 
preach  the  same  truth  which  other  preach- 
ers preach ;  and  yet,  coming  tlu-ough  his 
personality,  his  mind,  his  soul,  his  heart, 
he  will  not  see  it  and  feel  it  exactly  as 
others  see  it  and  feel  it.  Nor  will  he  say 
it  like  them ;  and  while  it  is  the  same,  it 
is  the  same  with  a  difference,  and  it  is  that 
difference  which  cannot  be  imitated,  which 

7 


98        THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

cannot  be  reproduced,  which  makes  him 
the  great  preacher  that  he  is.  And  it  is 
just  so  far,  not  as  we  resemble  but  as  we 
do  not  resemble  him,  that  we  too  become 
great  up  to  our  capacity  of  greatness. 

This,  then,  is  the  substance  of  what  I 
have  been  trying  to  say:  that  in  order  to 
make  our  preaching  of  the  Christian  Gos- 
pel effective,  it  must  be  the  Gospel  as  it 
speaks  tlu-ough  us,  through  our  own  per- 
sonal knowledge  and  personal  conquest  of 
it.  And  yet  how  hard  it  is  to  have  it  so 
speak  to-day !  The  truth  of  the  Gospel 
comes  to  us  cut  and  cMed  and  labelled, 
and  as  such  we  take  it,  and  preach  it,  and 
then  so  often  find,  and  so  often  wonder, 
that  it  does  not  have,  as  we  preach  it,  the 
life  and  power  of  truth.  The  reason  of  it 
is  this:  that  while  it  is  truth,  it  is  not 
life^  or  not  truth  alive.  We  have  not  made 
it  ours,  as  those  who  fhst  formulated  it 
made  it  theirs.  And  it  is  not  easy  to  make 
it  oui's,  just  because  it  was  they,  and  not 
we,  who  formulated  it.  And  therefore  to 
us  it  is  apt  to  be  only,  or  chiefly,  a  formula. 
As  a  formula  we  receive  it ;  as  a  formula 
we  preach  it ;  and,  as  a  formula,  it  has  no 
power.     But  perhaps  a  change  is  coming. 


THI-:  PR  EACH ER   AND  HIS   MESSAGE       90 

God  rules  in  all  ages,  and  is  ruling  now. 
And  in  that  sceptical  and  critical  thought 
which  seems  at  present  to  be  shaking,  if 
not  undermining,  the  traditional  faith  of 
some,  or  rather  that  somnolent  acquies- 
cence which  has  been  misnomered  faitli, 
God  in  His  providence  may  be  preparing 
the  way  for  making  it  again,  as  once  it 
was,  a  living  and  personal  faith.  And 
looking  at,  and  feeling  that  spirit  of  ques- 
tion and  doubt  which  is  so  prevalent  now, 
may  we  not  say,  with  the  Pope  in  Brown- 
ing's "Ring  and  the  Book,"  — 

"  What  if  it  be  the  mission  of  this  age 
To  shake  this  torpor  of  assurance  from  our  creed, 
Re-introduce  the  doubt  discarded,  bring 
The  formidable  danger  back  we  drove 
Long  ago  to  the  distance  and  the  dark. 
No  wild  beast  prowls   now  round   the    infant 

camp; 
We  have  built  wall,  and  sleep  in  city  safe. 
But  if  some  earthquake  try  the  towers  that  laugh 
To  think  they  once  saw  lions  rule  outside : 
And  man  stands  out  again,  pale,  resolute,  pre- 
pared to  die, 
Which  means,  alive  at  last ! " 

Yes,  and  the  pulpit  alive  at  last;   and 
having   been   made  alive  by  having  been 


100      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

made  to  seek  and  win  again  for  itself 
"  That  old  faith  in  the  tiling  grown  faith 
in  the  report,"  and  as  a  new  and  personal 
conquest  to  preach  and  body  it  forth. 
Then  will  it  be  a  power,  a  unique  and  dis- 
tinctive power.  Then  will  its  word  and 
message  be  a  word  and  message  of  power. 
Then,  even  in  an  un-ideal  and  materialistic 
age  will  it  draw  all  men  unto  it ;  for  the 
truth  which  then  it  will  preach  will  be  the 
truth  alive.  Life  will  touch  and  appeal  to 
life,  and  life  will  respond  to  life.  Men 
will  not  then  be  indifferent,  cannot  then 
be  indifferent,  to  the  pulpit's  living  voice  ; 
but  listening  to  that  voice,  not  from  a  sense 
of  duty,  but  from  a  sense  of  need,  they  will 
be  helped  and  quickened  by  it.  Material 
treasures  and  joys  will  still  be  treasures 
and  joys.  Men  will  continue  to  seek  them 
and  to  find  them.  But  something  else  will 
they  find ;  and  the  living  voice  of  the  pul- 
pit will  help  them  to  find  their  souls.  A 
new  ideal  will  gradually  dawn  through  the 
agency  of  the  pulpit  on  an  un-ideal  age. 
A  new  ambition  through  the  voice  of  the 
pulpit  will  be  awakened  in  it.  A  new 
light  will  seem  to  come,  as  when  the  morn- 
ing has  followed  the  night,  and  the  dark- 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  MESSAGE    101 

ness  been  driven  away  ;  as  when,  over  the 
eastern  liills  — 

"  Forth  one  wavelet,  then  another,  curled, 
Till  the  whole  sunrise,  not  to  be  suppressed 
Rose  reddened ;  and  its  seething  breast 
Flickered  in  bounds  ;  grew  bold,  then  overflowed 
the  world." 


THE   PREACHER   AND    OTHER 
MESSAGES 


THE   PREACHER  AND   OTHER 
MESSAGES. 

T  N  his  interesting  and  admirable  book  on 
"  Social  Evolution "  Mr.  Benjamin 
Kidd  has  shown  with  great  force  and 
clearness  of  statement  what  a  largfe  and 
important  factor  religion  has  been  in  the 
growth  and  development  of  society.  That 
indeed  is  the  one  thing  which  everywhere 
we  see,  and  wliich  I  think  hereafter  we 
shall  continue  to  see.  Those  who  believe 
that  the  future  will  emancipate  man  from 
religion  are  poor  readers,  it  seems  to  me, 
both  of  the  future  and  of  human  nature. 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  is  not  generally  re- 
garded as  a  religious "  apologist ;  and  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer  has  put  himself  on  record 
as  having  explicitly  stated  that  as  knowl- 
edge grows,  and  deepens,  and  widens  more 
and  more,  so  will  the  religious  sentiment 
grow ;  and  that  the  man  of  the  future, 
more   cultivated,    more   highly  developed 


106      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

than   now,   will    be   more    religious   than 
now. 

While,  however,  all  that  is  true,  that 
man  is  so  essentially  a  religious  creature 
and  can  never  get  rid  of  religion,  it  must 
also  be  confessed  and  deprecated  as  true 
that  religion  has  not  diffused  itself  through- 
out the  whole  man,  throughout  the  whole 
body  of  his  conduct  and  thought;  and 
that  while  it  has  been  and  still  is  an 
active  force  in  social  growth  and  develop- 
ment, it  might  be  and  ought  to  be  more 
active  than  it  is.  There  is  still  too  much 
of  a  break  or  chasm  in  man's  life.  There 
is  a  lack  of  unity  in  it.  He  is  not  reli- 
gious always,  but  only  religious  at  times  ; 
and  much  of  his  life  seems  to  be,  and 
seems  to  be  of  necessity,  beyond  the  sphere 
of  religion.  Now,  there  is  something  wrong 
about  this ;  for  religion  should  touch,  and 
pervade,  and  compass  all  the  life,  and  not 
simply  a  part  of  it.  And  why  does  it  not  ? 
Perhaps  we  preachers  are  in  a  measure 
responsible  for  it.  I  tliink  we  are ;  and 
that  in  our  zealous  effort  to  streng-then 
and  establish  religion  and  make  its  domin- 
ion more,  we  have  in  fact  narrowed  it,  and 
made   its   dominion   less.     Of  course   we 


THE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES,    107 

have  not  meant  to  do  this,  but  neverthe- 
less we  have  done  it.  And  how  ?  We 
have  drawn  the  line  too  sharply  between 
the  secular  and  the  religious,  or  rather 
have  helped  to  make  an  impassable  gulf 
between  them,  so  that  those  who  would 
pass  from  the  religious  to  the  secular  can- 
not ;  neither  can  they  pass  to  the  religious 
who  would  come  from  the  secular.  We 
have  made  tliis  distinction  in  the  first 
place  with  reference  to  truth,  and  have 
been  disposed  to  teach,  or  at  least  to  give 
the  impression,  that  what  we  call  religious 
truth  is  something  essentially  diifei'ent 
from  what  we  call  secular  truth. 

The  difference  we  say  is  this  :  religious 
truth  is  sometliing  which  God  has  revealed, 
while  secular  truth  is  somethinsr  which 
man  has  discovered.  Our  object  in  mak- 
ing this  distinction  is  to  give  to  religious 
truth  a  more  authoritative  investiture,  and 
to  make  men  more  disposed  to  hearken  to 
and  obey  it ;  because  it  is  God's  truth,  the 
truth  which  God  has  revealed.  In  empha- 
sizing, however,  the  sacredness  of  the  truth 
which  we  call  religious,  the  truth  which  is 
in  the  Bible,  we  have  diminished  the  sacred- 
ness of  all  other  truth,  the  truth  which  is 


108      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

not  in  the  Bible,  and  have  made  it  some- 
thing secular.  In  their  apprehension, 
therefore,  of  that  other  truth,  men  very 
naturally  have  become  secularized,  and 
have  not  been  made  to  feel  that  in  touch- 
ing that  other  truth  they  were  touch- 
ing the  garment  of  God,  as  we  touch  His 
garment  who  move  within  the  sphere  of 
the  truth  which  God  has  revealed.  They 
are  outside  of  that  sphere,  we  think  ;  and 
while  what  they  say  may  be  true,  it  is  not 
as  true  as  our  truth,  and  must  be  subordi- 
nated to  our  truth,  because  our  truth  is 
revealed  truth,  and  theirs  is  not  revealed. 
And  so  we  become  jealous  of  them,  and 
they  become  jealous  of  us ;  and  there  is 
friction,  and  irritation,  and  antagonism 
between  us.  And  we  have  the  singular 
spectacle  and  the  sad  one,  of  men  loving 
truth  with  an  earnest  and  passionate  love, 
searching  for  it,  devoted  to  it,  ready,  if 
need  be,  to  die  for  it,  as  they  have  died  for 
it,  and  yet  standing  apart  and  separate 
from  Him  whose  Kingdom  is  the  king- 
dom of  truth,  whose  weapon  is  the  weapon 
of  truth,  whose  voice  is  the  voice  of  truth, 
and  who  said  before  the  governor  in  the 
judgment  hall,  "  To  this  end  was  I  born  ; 


THE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    109 

for  this  purpose  came  I  into  the  world, 
that  I  shouhl  bear  witness  unto  tlie  truth." 
It  is,  I  say,  a  sad  and  singular  spectacle, 
and  one  that  ought  not  to  be.  And  why- 
is  it  ?  Are  not  we  ourselves  in  a  measure 
responsible  for  it  by  making  a  distinction 
in  theory  wliich  does  not  in  reality  exist  ? 
Truth  in  the  Bible  is  not  distinguished 
from  truth  outside  of  the  Bible  by  the 
fact  that  it  alone  is  a  revelation  of  God, 
that  it  alone  is  sacred,  that  it  alone  is 
religious.  That  is  a  wrong  distinction. 
All  truth  is  sacred.  All  truth  is  religious, 
and  it  is  all  a  revelation  of  God.  To  think 
or  teach  otherwise  is  to  deny  the  possibility 
of  any  revelation  at  all.  It  is  to  deny  that 
the  truth  of  the  Bible  is  a  revelation  of 
God.  Or  rather  it  is  to  deny  and  destroy 
the  only  philosophic  ground  upon  which 
we  can  consistently  maintain  that  it  is  a 
revelation  of  God,  and  to  go  over  at  once 
to  the  enemy,  —  that  positive  school  of 
thought  which  declares  that  God,  being 
absolute  and  infinite,  and  because  infinite 
and  absolute,  cannot  make  a  revelation  of 
Himself  to  the  related  and  the  finite,  and 
must  forever  remain  to  us  unknown  and 
unknowable.     We,  on  the  other  hand,  be- 


110      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

lieve  that  God  can  reveal  himself  and 
does  reveal  Himself,  that  He  is  essentially 
a  revealing  God.  That  is  the  crux  of  all 
our  philosophic  contentions.  Can  the  Un- 
known Infinite  become  known  to  the  finite  ? 
Can  God  reveal  Himself  ?  And  here,  too, 
is  the  essential  difference  between  the  re- 
ligious and  the  non-religious  mind,  —  one 
believing  that  God  is  a  revealing  God, 
and  the  other  believing  that  God  is  not 
a  revealing  God. 

Whenever,  therefore,  we  teach  with 
reference  to  any  body  of  truth,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  truth  of  the  Bible  that  it  alone 
is  divine  revelation,  we  fall,  with  reference 
to  all  other  truth,  into  the  very  error  which 
we  deprecate.  We  teach  by  implication, 
as  far  as  that  other  truth  is  concerned,  pre- 
cisely what  non-religion  teaches,  what  Posi- 
tivism teaches,  namely,  that  God  is  not  a 
revealing  God,  and  that  that  other  truth  is 
something  which  man  by  his  own  unaided 
effort  has  discovered,  and  which,  therefore, 
has  to  be  looked  at  in  connection  with  man, 
as  revealing  tlie  glory  of  man,  and  not  as 
something  rather  which  the  revealing  God, 
working  in  and  through  man,  has  revealed 
to  man's  apprehension.     May  we  not  be- 


THE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    111 

lieve,  however,  that  God  was  once  long  ago 
a  revealing  God,  but  that  He  is  not  now  a 
revealing  God  ?  Yes,  we  may  believe  it ; 
but  to  do  so  is  to  believe  in  a  cliangreable 
God,  and  not  in  a  God  who  is  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,  without 
variableness  or  shadow  of  turningf.  And 
if  we  believe  in  a  changeable  God,  who  is 
not  now  and  alwaj^s  a  revealing  God,  we 
make  it  difficult  to  believe  that  He  was 
ever  a  revealing  God  ;  because  we  surren- 
der that  philosophic  first  premise  by  which 
alone  we  can  prove  it,  namely,  that  God  is 
essentially  a  revealing  God,  and  substi- 
tute in  its  place  that  philosophic  first 
premise  of  the  Positive  school  of  thought 
which  declares  that  God  is  essentiallj^  a 
non-revealing  God. 

Do  not  misunderstand  me.  The  truth 
which  the  Bible  contains  could  not  have 
been  reached  by  the  unaided  faculties  of 
man.  That  of  course  I  believe,  and  would 
stoutly  maintain.  But  neither,  again, 
could  the  truth  which  lies  outside  of  the 
Bible.  That,  too,  is  divine  revelation. 
The  method  of  the  revelation  may  not  be 
the  same.  It  may  be,  if  you  please,  less 
immediate  and  direct :  those  are  questions 


112  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

whicli  I  am  not  now  considering.  My 
point  is  tliis,  that  it  is  divine  revelation, 
and  must  be  regarded  as  such,  as  the 
logical  sequence  of  that  fundamental  con- 
viction in  which  religion  finds  its  raison 
cVetre^  that  God  is  essentially  a  revealing 
God,  and  that  the  whole  of  our  human 
nature  in  its  intellectual  activities,  as  well 
as  in  its  moral  and  spiritual  endeavors,  is 
quickened  by  and  dependent  upon,  and 
has  its  being  in  this  immanent  and  reveal- 
ing God.  What,  then,  is  the  difference 
between  truth  in  the  Bible  and  truth 
outside  of  the  Bible  ?  Not  that  one  is 
revealed  and  the  other  not  revealed  ;  they 
are  both  revealed.  Neither  is  it  that  one 
is  more  authoritative  than  the  other ;  for 
truth  can  have  no  higher  authority  than 
the  fact  of  its  being  truth.  The  differ- 
ence is  this :  partly,  if  you  please,  that 
they  are  revealed  in  different  ways  ;  partly 
that  they  are  different  kinds  of  revealed 
truth;  and  partly,  also,  that  in  the  Bible 
we  have  the  revealed  truth  of  God  moving 
more  and  more  toAvards  a  full  embodiment, 
and  in  Jesus  Christ  made  flesh.  We  see 
it  not  as  theory  there,  not  as  an  abstract 
principle,  we  see   it  there  as  life.     It  is 


THE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    113 

clothed  in  a  living  soul,  in  a  living  form 
and  body ;  it  speaks  in  a  living  voice.  The 
Word  of  God  is  made  flesh  and  glorified 
by  an  incarnation,  saying,  not  here  or 
there,  or  this  or  that  is  truth,  but  saying,  / 
am  Truth  ;  look  unto  3Ie  ;  come  unto  Me  ; 
follow  Me.  Every  one  that  is  of  the  truth 
heareth  My  voice. 

But  suppose  there  should  be  some  con- 
flict between  the  truth  within  and  the 
truth  without  the  Bible  ?  Why,  the  very 
asking  of  the  question  is  the  answering  of 
it.  Truth  is  truth,  and  God's  truth,  and 
God's  revealed  truth,  and  can  no  more  be 
in  conflict  with  itself  than  God  can  be  in 
conflict  with  Himself.  That  there  is  in- 
deed, or  may  be,  a  conflict  more  or  less, 
between  certain  propositions  which  by  the 
different  teachers  have  been  put  forth  as 
truth,  I  do  not  of  course  deny,  and  in  the 
face  of  facts  could  not.  Those  whose  busi- 
ness it  is  to  study  the  truth  of  God  con- 
tained outside  of  the  Bible  may  be  at 
times  mistaken  in  what  they  say  and  teach, 
as  they  have  been  mistaken ;  and  we  should 
be  slow  and  cautious  in  accepting  what 
they  say,  because  it  may  not  be  true  ;  but 
we  should  also  be  slow  and  cautious  in 


114      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

rejecting  what  they  say,  because  it  may  be 
true.  Let  us  wait  and  see :  not  antago- 
nistically, but  sympathetically  ;  and  let  us 
be  willing  that  they  should  go  on  and  do 
their  work  in  their  own  proper  way.  And 
what  is  their  way  ?  It  is  to  put  forth  at 
times  new  and  tentative  hypotheses,  not 
as  being  themselves  positive  statements  of 
truth,  but  simply  as  working  theories  with 
a  view  to  ascertaining  how  well  or  ill  they 
work.  If  it  is  found  that  they  work  well, 
and  continue  to  work  well,  then  by  that 
well-working  they  are  validated  and  con- 
firmed. But  if  it  is  found  that  they  work 
ill,  and  continue  to  work  ill,  then  by  that 
ill-working  they  are  invalidated  and  set 
aside,  or  changed  somewhat  and  corrected. 
In  the  mean  while,  then,  I  say,  let  us  wait 
and  see  whether  they  work  well  or  whether 
they  work  ill.  And  let  us  give  to  those 
who  are  working  them  a  hearty  and  appre- 
ciative encouragement.  Let  us  cause  them 
to  understand  that  we  are  with  them  and 
not  against  them,  and  that  if,  as  the  result 
of  their  working,  their  brave  and  patient 
working,  they  should  at  last  disclose  and 
make  known  to  us  some  truth  not  known 
by  us  before,  —  then,  no  matter  through 


TUE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    115 

what  medium  it  comes  to  us,  no  matter 
what  surrender  of  cherished  belief  it  costs 
us,  we  will  submit  to  it,  and  bow  to  it, 
gladly,  gratefully,  reverently,  as  the  truth 
wliich  our  God,  our  revealing  God,  has 
tlii'ough  them  revealed. 

Above  all  things,  let  us  not  seem  to  put 
oui'selves  in  an  attitude  of  hostility  to 
those  who  are  simply  trying  with  an  appa- 
rently honest  purpose  to  bring  to  light 
more  and  more  the  hidden  things  of  dark- 
ness, and  to  find  out  what  is  true.  Let  us 
be  careful  not  to  create  the  impression 
that  we  are  afraid  of  truth,  of  any  truth, 
and  that  we  are  not  in  full  sympathy  with 
those  who  are  seeking  truth.  Let  us  be 
willing,  therefore,  to  forego  the  pleasure, 
so  appealing  to  the  clerical  mind  at  times, 
of  refuting  so  successfully  in  the  presence 
of  sjanpathetic  congregations  those  vain 
and  deluded  men  of  scientific  research, 
who  remain,  alas,  so  insensible  to  our 
refutation  of  them,  and  still  go  on  with 
their  searching.  And  let  them  go  on  with 
their  searching.  What  we  hold  we  believe 
is  true  ;  and  because  it  is  true  we  hold  it ; 
and  because  it  is  true  we  teach  it.  But  we 
hold  not  all   the  truth.     ''The    first  man 


116  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

knew  lier  not  perfectly,  no  more  shall  the 
last  find  her  out.  Her  thoughts  are  more 
than  the  sea,  and  her  counsels  profounder 
than  the  great  deep."  There  is  more  yet 
to  come ;  there  is  more  yet  to  appear.  And 
to  all  who  are  honestly  trying  to  make  it 
come  and  appear,  the  voice  of  the  Christian 
pulpit  should  be  always  ready  to  give  and 
speak  an  encouraging  word  ;  and  to  claim 
and  maintain  for  them  that  same  liberty 
of  prophesying  which  it  claims  to-day  for 
itself.  In  the  exercise  of  that  liberty  they 
may  make  mistakes,  as  we  do,  and  go 
wrong;  but  without  the  liberty  to  go 
wrong  there  can  be  no  liberty  to  go  right ; 
and  it  is  better  to  run  the  risk  of  mistak- 
ing the  false  for  the  true,  than,  by  not  run- 
ning the  risk,  to  fail  to  find  the  true. 

Let  us  then  be  willing  to  give,  and  to 
let  it  be  understood  that  we  are  willing  to 
give,  the  fullest  and  broadest  liberty  to  all 
those  persons  to-day  who,  in  spheres  out- 
side of  the  Bible,  are  trying  to  find  the 
truth.  Let  that  be  our  attitude  towards 
them,  —  not  inimical,  but  friendly ;  not  at 
variance  with  them,  but  at  one  with  them ; 
believing  that  through  them  God  can  also 
speak,  and  does  at  times  speak,  and  that 


THE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    117 

the  truth  which  they  utter  is  not  therefore 
secular,  but  sacred  and  religious,  the  truth 
which  God  reveals. 

Is  tliat  then  the  truth  which  we  as 
Cluistian  ministers  are  called  upon  to 
})reach  ?  That  docs  not  necessarily  follow. 
I  should  say  that  as  a  rule  we  are  not 
called  to  preach  it.  Truth,  to  be  sure,  is 
one,  and  not  two,  or  many ;  and  yet  there 
are  many  kinds,  and  phases,  and  forms  of 
truth,  like  the  manj^  notes  of  music,  or  the 
many  hues  of  color,  which,  though  con- 
nected, are  different.  The  truth  of  geology 
is  in  harmony  with  the  truth  of  astronomy, 
but  it  is  not  the  same  as  the  truth  of  as- 
tronomy. Nor  does  it  follow  that  because 
one  teaches  geology  he  should  also  teach 
astrononi}'.  It  rather  follows  that  he  should 
not ;  and  that  if  he  does  undertake  to 
teach  it,  he  will  not  teach  it  well.  The 
blade  (to  use  Lord  Macaulaj^'s  simile) 
which  is  intended  to  serve  the  double 
purpose  of  a  carving-knife  and  a  razor, 
will  not  carve  so  well  as  a  knife,  nor  shave 
so  well  as  a  razor ;  and  the  bakery  which 
should  also  be  a  bank,  would  be  likely  to 
make  poor  bread,  and  to  discount  bad 
bills. 


118      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

The  tendency  of  civilized  society  is  a 
tendency  towards  specialization;  and  the 
specialized  task  of  the  preacher  is  not  to 
try  to  preach  all  the  truth  which  God  has 
revealed  (though  it  is  all  true,  and  God 
has  revealed  it),  but  to  preach  that  truth 
which  God  has  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ; 
and  the  less  he  has  to  do  with  the  preach- 
ing of  what  is  called  scientihc  truth,  the 
better,  I  think,  will  it  be  both  for  the 
preaching  and  the  science.  His  preach- 
ing will  be  touched  or  affected  more  or 
less  by  that  scientific  truth.  It  cannot 
help  being  affected  by  it.  And  more 
or  less  incidentally  and  collaterally  and 
as  a  kind  of  side  light  it  will  show  it- 
self in  his  preaching.  But  he  is  not,  in 
my  judgment,  and  as  I  interpret  his  office, 
called  upon  to  preach  it,  any  more  than  he 
is  called  upon  to  preach  against  it.  He  is 
called  upon  chiefly  to  preach  the  truth  of 
God  revealed  in  Jesus  Chiist ;  and  through 
his  own  personal  absorption  and  assimila- 
tion of  it  to  make  that  truth  a  power  in 
the  lives  of  those  who  hear  him.  That  is 
his  special  task,  and  that  is  task  enough,  — 
hard  enough,  great  enough,  sublime  enough 
to  tax  him  to  the  utmost,  and  to  give  him 


THE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    119 

employment  enough.  And  yet,  while  per- 
forming the  task  of  preaching  the  truth 
of  God  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  let  him 
not  forget  that  there  is  other  truth,  and 
that  there  are  other  teachers  of  truth.  Is 
his  task  sacred?  So  is  theirs.  Is  his  truth 
revealed  ?  So  is  theirs.  Is  he  a  minister 
of  God  ?  So  are  they.  Is  he  a  prophet  of 
God  ?  So  are  they.  And  the  work  which 
they  do  is  religious  work,  as  the  work 
which  he  does  is  religious  work ;  because 
it  is  not  chiefly  the  work  which  is  done  by 
them,  but  the  work  which  is  done  by  God, 
or  done  by  God  through  them.  And  the 
verdict  of  the  heart  is  a  true  one,  when, 
looking  back  over  the  ages  and  seeing 
the  beautiful  things  which  have  been 
brought  to  liglit  by  literature  and  art, 
and  the  wonderful  things  which  have  been 
disclosed  by  physical  or  metaphysical  and 
philosophic  research,  and  the  great  results 
and  principles  which  have  been  evolved  in 
the  progress  and  conflict  of  the  nations, 
and  the  historic  march  of  events,  it  is 
moved  to  say  as  it  sees,  not  what  hath  man, 
but  "  what  hath  God  wrought." 

Instead,  therefore,  of  making  a  distinc- 
tion between  sacred  truth  and  secular,  let 


120  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

US  claim  all  truth  as  sacred,  because  all 
truth  is  God's,  and  comes  from  God,  and 
is  doing  God's  work  in  the  world. 

And  the  claim  which  we  make  for  truth 
let  us  also  make  for  life;  and  teach  that 
life,  though  engaged  in  secular  duties  and 
affairs,  is  still  a  sacred  thing ;  and  that  the 
secular  sphere  in  which  it  moves  is  still  a 
sacred  sphere ;  and  that  the  secular  work 
Avhich  there  it  does  is  still  a  sacred  work. 
Jesus  Christ  is  there  in  that  secular  sphere, 
or  may  be  there.  For  what  is  Jesus  Christ  ? 
Not  merely  the  name  of  a  person  who  lived 
on  the  earth  some  eighteen  or  nineteen 
hundred  years  ago,  and  then  died,  and  was 
buried,  and  rose  again,  and  went  off  some- 
where into  some  invisible  world.  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  name  of  the  Life  on  earth  of 
God ;  and  that  Life  of  God  we  find  upon 
the  earth  to-day  in  the  hearts  and  souls  of 
men.  The  image  of  God  is  on  them,  and 
cannot  be  effaced.  The  Life  of  God  is  in 
them,  and  cannot  be  destroyed.  And  every 
now  and  then,  at  unexpected  times,  and 
in  unexpected  ways,  gleams  and  flashes 
of  it  appear  in  secular  things  and  affairs. 
And  the  name  of  that  Life  of  God  in  the 
hearts  and  souls  of   men  is  Jesus  Christ, 


THE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    121 

in  whom  it  full}-  appeared  without  let  or 
hindrance,  without  spot  or  blemish,  and  of 
whom  it  was  said  in  consequence,  that  He 
was  the  brightness  of  His  Father's  glory, 
and  the  express  image  of  His  jDerson. 

Ordinarily,  however,  men  do  not  feel 
that  the  life  of  God  is  in  their  secular 
sphere  of  conduct.  Cliiistian  men  do  not 
feel  so ;  and  when  they  go  from  the  duties 
which  they  perform  in  church  on  Sunday 
to  the  duties  which  await  them  in  the  office 
or  shop  on  INIonday,  they  seem  to  them- 
selves to  be  going  away  from  Jesus  Christ, 
from  a  territory  which  is  religious  to  a 
territory  which  is  not  religious.  They  may 
be  religious  in  it ;  to  some  extent  they  are 
religious  in  it,  many  of  them,  perhaps  most 
of  them.  But  the  territory  itself  they 
feel  is  not  religious,  but  common,  worldly, 
and  secular ;  and  that  they  while  in  it  are 
doing  common  and  worldly  things.  And 
they  get  into  the  habit  of  doing  them  in 
a  common  and  worldly  way,  according  to 
the  wa}^  of  the  teiritory,  according  to  the 
rules  of  the  territorj^  which  is  not  a  relig- 
ious territory,  and  whose  rules,  therefore, 
are  not  religious  rules.  The  religious 
rules  belong  only  to  the  religious  territory, 


122      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

which  is  back  there,  somewhere.  They 
were  in  it  for  a  while  on  Sunday,  or  at 
the  week-day  prayer-meeting;  and  there, 
indeed,  in  that  religious  territory  they 
observed  religious  rules.  But  out  here, 
in  the  great,  broad,  busy  non-religious 
territory,  those  religious  rules  do  not  work 
or  apply,  and  are  not  expected  to  apply. 

And  so  we  have  the  spectacle  of  men, 
good  and  true,  observing  one  kind  of  rule 
at  one  time,  and  another  kind  of  rule 
at  another  time.  On  Sunday  they  are 
religious,  and  seek  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  That  is  what  Sunday  is  for.  On 
Monday  they  are  worldl}^  and  seek  first 
their  own  kingdom.  That  is  what  Mon- 
day is  for.  On  Sunday  they  believe  in 
unselfishness,  and  altruism  is  the  rule. 
On  Monday  they  believe  in  selfishness, 
and  egoism  is  the  rule.  On  Sunday  they 
believe  in  trying  to  win  their  souls  by 
sacrificing  themselves.  On  Monday  they 
believe  in  trying  to  win  the  world  by  sac- 
rificing others.  Nor  do  they  think  that  in 
doing  this  they  are  doing  anything  wrong. 
They  are  simply  living  in  two  territories, 
or  going  from  one  territory  to  another, 
like  a  person  who  goes  from  a  monarchy 


THE  PRE  AC  HER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES     123 

to  a  republic,  and  observing  in  each  the 
rules,  and  laws  and  manners  of  each.  In 
the  religious  territory  the}^  are  religious, 
and  conform  to  religious  customs.  In  the 
worldly  territory  they  are  worldly,  and 
conform  to  worldly  customs. 

Now,  such  a  conception  of  religion  and 
of  religious  observance  is  a  very  poor  one, 
stunted,  dwarfed,  or  aboi-tived;  and  yet 
it  is  the  conception  which  so  many  seem 
to  have.  Not  only  do  so  many  laymen 
seem  to  have  it,  but  so  many  clergymen; 
and  so  many  laymen  perhaps  because  so 
many  clergymen.  Like  priest,  like  people. 
And  their  preaching  shows  that  they  have 
it.  They  exhort  their  congregations,  for 
instance,  not  to  give  so  much  of  their  time 
and  strength  to  the  world,  and  the  doing 
of  things  that  are  worldly,  but  to  give  part 
of  it  to  God  and  to  the  doingf  of  thing's 
that  are  religious.  By  which  they  mean 
the  things  that  are  marked  and  labelled 
religious,  that  have  a  religious  stamp,  a 
religious  name  upon  them,  such  as  teach- 
ing in  Sundaj'-school,  or  attending  the 
weekly  prayer-meeting,  or  the  sewing  so- 
ciety, or  the  Dorcas  society,  or  the  benev- 
olent society,  or  the  missionary  society,  — 


124      THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

the  things  that  are  connected  more  inti- 
mately with  the  activities  of  the  church. 
And  thus  they  give  the  impression  that 
religion  is  a  sort  of  side  issue  on  the  earth, 
or  a  little  sphere  of  conduct  and  activity 
by  itself,  and  that  there  is  another  and 
larger  sphere  of  conduct  into  which  reli- 
gion, and  religious  laws  and  rules  are  not 
expected  to  enter,  or  not  to  enter  much; 
and  into  which,  in  consequence,  they  do 
not  enter  much,  and  Avhere  other  laws  and 
rules  which  are  not  religious,  which  are 
not  the  laws  and  rules  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ,  prevail. 

Now,  I  believe  thoroughly  in  that  kind 
of  religious  work  which  is  known  as 
"  church  work,"  or  parish  work,  —  Sun- 
day-schools, prayer-meetings,  benevolent 
societies,  etc.  I  believe  that  the  Christian 
people  in  our  congregations  should  take 
hold  of  that  work  and  help  it.  That 
surely  is  religious  work,  and  very  impor- 
tant religious  work.  I  shall  have  some- 
thing to  say  about  that  before  I  finish  this 
course  of  lectures.  But  there  is  another 
kind  of  religious  work  which  seems  to  me 
to  be  still  more  important.  I  mean  the 
work  which  is  done  in  what  is  usually  des- 


THE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    125 

ignated  as  the  secular  sphere  of  conduct, 
—  politics,  society,  business.  And  the  men 
who  are  in  that  so-called  secular  sphere 
should  be  made  to  feel  that  God  is  also  in 
it,  and  that  they  are  in  it  with  God  and  for 
God,  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all, 
and  in  all.  They  should  be  made  to  feel 
that  they  are  in  it  to  do  God's  work  in  the 
world,  in  God's  way,  according  to  God's 
rules,  as  Jesus  Christ  has  revealed  them. 
They  should  be  made  to  feel,  therefore, 
that  all  the  activities  in  which  they  there 
engage,  or  the  things  whicli  there  they  do, 
are  religious  things  and  activities.  This 
will  make  them,  not  less  inclined,  but  more, 
to  participate  in  and  do  those  other  reli- 
gious things,  those  other  religious  duties, 
such  as  teaching  in  Sunday-schools,  at- 
tending prayer-meetings,  and  helping  and 
relieving  the  poor,  for  which  the  parish 
stands.  Naturally,  easily,  gladly,  will  the}- 
pass  from  one  kind  of  religious  work  to 
another  kind  of  religious  work.  There 
will  seem  to  be  no  break  in  it.  And  if 
5'ou  want  to  get  your  congregations  (when 
the  time  comes  for  you  to  have  congrega- 
tions) more  interested  in  the  religious  work 
whicli  is  going  on  in   your  parishes,  you 


126  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

must  fii'st  get  them  to  understand  (it  is  a 
difficult  thing  to  do,  for  it  is  alwaj'S  a  diffi- 
cult thing  to  get  people  out  of  ruts),  that 
religious  work  is  something  which  is  going 
on  all  the  time.  You  must  first  make  them 
realize  that  in  this  world  which  God  made 
and  owns,  there  never  was  meant  to  be  anj^ 
other  kind  of  work  except  religious  work, 
and  that  the  distinction  which  has  been 
made  between  the  religious  and  the  secu- 
lar is  a  false  and  misleading  distinction. 
First  get  them  to  understand  that,  I  say ; 
then  your  Sunday-schools  will  be  well 
equipped,  your  prayer-meetings  will  be 
well  attended,  your  missionary  and  benev- 
olent societies  will  prosper  and  flourish  as 
you  would  have  them  flourish.  Yes,  and 
other  things  will  come  in  time  in  your  par- 
ishes which  will  also  prosper  and  flourish. 
We  hear  the  fear  expressed  in  some 
quarters  to-day  that  the  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  giving  too  much  of  his  time  to 
the  development  in  his  parish  of  secular 
works  and  activities,  and  is  himself  in 
danger  of  becoming  secularized.  Instead 
of  devoting  so  much  of  his  energy  and 
strength  to  the  starting  of  guilds  and  clubs, 
—  girls'  clubs,  men's  clubs,  boys'  clubs,  — 


THE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    127 

and  coffee-houses,  and  gymnasiums,  and 
dispensaries,  and  kindergartens,  and  day- 
nurseries,  and  loan  bureaus,  and  employ- 
ment bureaus,  he  should,  it  is  said,  confine 
himself  more  strictly  to  his  proper  work, 
which  is  the  work  of  preaching  the  Gos- 
pel. Now,  if  this  criticism  simply  means 
that  the  woik  of  preaching  the  Gospel  is 
for  the  Christian  minister,  the  fu'st  and 
paramount  work,  then  I  accept  and  in- 
dorse it ;  for  that  is  what  I  believe,  and 
have  already  said.  And  if  the  doing  of 
those  other  things  to  wliich  I  have  referred 
interferes  with  his  preaching,  then  in  my 
judgment  he  should  not  try  to  do  them. 
If  he  cannot  do  both,  let  him  not  try  to 
do  both,  but  only  to  do  the  one  which  is 
in  importance  fii'st.  But  if  the  criticism 
means  or  implies  that  in  doing  those  things 
in  his  parish  which  are  commonly  called 
secular  he  is  not  doing  things  wliich  are  in 
reality  religious,  then  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  criticism  is  not  well  taken,  and  is  cal- 
culated to  give  a  conception  of  religion 
which  impoverishes  and  enfeebles  it,  and 
makes  it  so  much  less,  and  so  much  less 
sublime,  than  what  it  really  is  or  what 
it  was  meant  to  be.     For  religion,  accord- 


128      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

ing  to  the  Christian  conception  of  it,  does 
not  mean  to  have  the  consciousness  of  God 
in  some  particular  phxces,  or  in  some  par- 
ticular things.  That  is  the  pagan  concep- 
tion of  religion,  that  God  is  in  places  and 
things,  —  lo  here,  lo  there  !  But  our  reli- 
gion is  better  and  more  sublime  than  that, 
and  means  to  have  the  consciousness  of 
God  in  all  places,  and  in  all  things.  With 
that  consciousness  of  God  all  duty  is  sacred 
duty ;  all  service  is  sacred  service ;  all  life 
is  sacred  life.  Wherever  we  go  or  are, 
we  have  the  consciousness  in  us  that  we 
are  standing  on  holy  ground.  Whatever 
we  try  to  do,  we  have  the  consciousness 
in  us  that  we  are  doing  holy  work.  And 
even  when  through  parish  coffee-houses, 
and  clubs,  and  gymnasiums,  we  minister 
simply  to  the  bodies  of  men,  we  are  min- 
istering unto  bodies  which  Jesus  Christ 
taught  are  the  temples  of  the  Holy  Gliost. 
That,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  conception 
of  religion  which  you  and  I  are  to  try  to 
give  to  the  people  of  this  generation. 
And  if  in  any  way  we  can  make  our 
parishes  stand  for  that  and  express  it,  we 
shall  be  doing  something  towards  the  estab- 
lishment on  earth  of  the  kingdom  of  tlie 


THE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    129 

Soil  of  God.  Humiin  life  hitherto  has 
been  too  much  divided,  and  cut  up  into 
fragments  and  sections.  Each  of  the  de- 
partments of  knowledge,  says  Mr.  Kidd 
again,  which  has  dealt  with  man  in  society, 
has  regarded  him  almost  exclusively  from 
its  own  standpoint.  "  To  the  politician  he 
he  has  been  the  mere  opportunist.  To  the 
historian  he  has  been  the  unit,  which  is 
the  support  of  blind  forces  apparently  sub- 
ject to  no  law.  To  the  exponent  of  religion 
he  has  been  the  creature  of  another  world. 
To  the  political  economist  he  has  been 
little  more  than  a  covetous  machine.  The 
time  has  come,  it  would  appear,  for  a  bet- 
ter understanding  and  for  a  more  radical 
method."  And  that  better  understanding, 
it  seems  to  me,  must  come  from  a  better 
understanding  of  religion,  from  a  concep- 
tion of  religion  which  shall  include  in  its 
synthesis  all  forms  of  human  conduct  and 
all  departments  of  human  activity.  It  is 
eminently  fit  and  proper,  therefore,  that 
the  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  should  take  an 
active  part  in  all  social  and  political  move- 
ments ;  not  merel}^  because  he,  too,  is  a 
man  and  never  forfeits  his  manhood ;  but 
because  also  he  is  a  man  of  relisfion,  a  re- 
9 


130      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

ligious  man.  And  all  those  social  and  po- 
litical movements  are  essentially  religious 
movements  which  tend  to  establish  on  the 
earth,  or  should  be  so  directed  as  to  be  made 
to  establish,  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ. 
As  long,  however,  as  the  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ  has  but  little  to  do  with  them,  men 
will  continue  to  feel  that  those  social  and 
political  movements  are  not  religious  move- 
ments, and  that  the  work  which  they  do 
along  those  different  lines  is  not  a  religious 
work.  And  it  is  just  that  conception  of 
the  work  of  the  world,  of  the  real  work  of 
the  world,  which  we  must  try  to  change. 
That  great  political  reformation,  it  has 
been  said,  which  broke  out  in  Europe 
near  the  close  of  the  last  century,  and 
whose  influence  has  extended  to  these 
western  shores,  has  made  the  people  feel 
that  the  sovereignty  of  the  world  is  in 
their  hands  to-day,  and  that  they  indeed 
are  the  kings.  What  is  needed  now,  it 
has  been  also  said,  is  another  and  greater 
reformation,  which  shall  make  the  people 
feel  that  they  are  priests  as  well  as  kings, 
and  which  shall  give  to  them  in  their  work, 
whatever  it  may  be,  and  however  secular 
it  may  seem,  the  consciousness  of  God  and 
the  sense  of  responsibility  to  Him. 


THE  PRKACHKR  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    131 

In  this  way,  I  think,  and  only  in  this 
way,  will  social  antagonism  bo  abated, 
social  irritation  appeased,  and  that  social 
reformation  wrought,  which  is  both  needed 
and  imminent  and  which  cannot  be  long- 
delayed,  when  the  rich  and  the  poor  and 
all,  will  be  made  to  realize  that  they  are 
priests  as  well  as  kings,  and  are  every- 
where doing  their  work  in  the  world  as  at 
the  altar  of  God.  In  that  way,  too,  it 
seems  to  me  all  human  life  on  earth  is  to 
be  gathered  up  into  Jesus  Christ,  —  not  by 
separating  it  from  the  secular  si)here,  but 
by  sending  it  into  the  secular  spliere  with 
the  consciousness  there  of  God.  When 
Abraham  was  called  by  the  Divine  Spiiit 
to  leave  his  nati^■e  country,  he  Avent  out, 
we  are  told,  looking  for  a  city,  the  syml)ol 
of  secular  life,  Avliose  builder  should  be 
God.  The  men  of  Shinar  and  Nineveh 
were  building  up  their  cities  in  selfishness 
and  sensuousness.  Abraham  looked  for  a 
city  wliose  builder  should  be  God.  When 
St.  John  in  the  isle  of  Patmos  looked  for- 
ward into  the  future,  and  saw  the  eventual 
triumph  of  the  Christian  religion  on  earth, 
he  saw  that  triumpli  coming  to  pass,  —  not 
in  the  form  of  a  church,  in  which  all  men 


132      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

should  be  doing  things  technically  called 
religious,  but  in  the  form  of  a  city,  the 
symbol  of  secular  life,  a  New  Jerusalem, 
coming  down  out  of  heaven  from  God,  in 
which  all  men  should  be  doing  things  tech- 
nically called  secular,  but  doing  them  with 
the  spirit  of  God  as  revealed  in  Jesus 
Christ. 

St.  Augustine,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fifth  century,  when  the  city  of  Rome  by 
reason  of  its  inherent  moral  corruption, 
was  falling  into  decay,  put  forth  his  cele- 
brated work,  in  which  he  attempted  to 
show  that  the  Christian  religion  was  not 
hostile  to  the  secular  life,  but  that  its  pur- 
pose was  to  build  a  city  of  God  on  earth. 
Two  cities,  he  sa3^s,  began  to  be  upon  this 
earth  with  man,  founded  by  two  loves,  — 
the  one  by  the  love  of  self  even  to  the  de- 
spising of  God,  whose  greatest  creation  is 
the  city  of  Rome ;  the  other  hy  the  love 
of  God  even  to  the  despising  and  sac- 
rificing of  self,  whose  greatest  creation 
will  be  that  society,  that  city,  that  sphere 
of  secular  activity  whose  life  has  all  been 
gathered  into  Jesus  Christ. 

That  is  the  task,  young  gentlemen,  to 
which  to-day  you  are  called,  of  trying  to 


THE  PREACHER  AND  OTHER  MESSAGES    133 

gather  up  into  Jesus  Christ,  not  some,  but 
all  human  life  on  earth.  I  do  not  know 
any  task  more  noble,  more  sublime,  or 
which  appeals  more  strongly  to  ever}^  true 
and  sublime  and  worthy  impulse  in  you. 
To  what  vocation  greater,  can  any  3*oung 
man  devote  his  talent,  his  time,  his  life? 
Touching  all  pursuits,  and  including  within 
its  compass  all  kinds  of  social  endeavor, 
all  phases  of  moral  reform,  what  field  so 
broad,  so  vast?  It  is  indeed  the  world, 
and  that  is  the  field,  the  world,  in  which 
as  the  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ  you  are 
called  to  work. 


THE   PREACHER   PREPARING   HIS 
MESSAGE 

GENERAL  PREPARATION 


THE   PREACHER  PREPARING  HIS 
MESSAGE 

GENERAL  PKEPAEATION 

T  N  venturing  to  tell  you  something  about 
the  preparation  for  preaching,  as  I  shall 
try  to  do  in  this  lecture,  I  must,  of  course. 
go  over  the  same  ground  in  part  Avhicli 
you  have  already  gone  over,  or  which  you 
are  now  traversing  with  your  teachers 
here ;  and  this  may  seem  in  me  both  super- 
fluous and  presumptuous.  But  the  purpose 
of  this  lectureship,  as  I  interpret  it,  is  to 
impart  such  information  as  one  has  been 
able  to  gather  from  his  own  practical  min- 
istry, and  to  supplement  the  valuable  in- 
struction of  the  school,  with  the  hints  and 
helps  suggested  by  an  experience  outside 
of  the  school.  Assuming  that  I  am  right 
in  this,  let  me  proceed  to  tell  you  some- 
thing about  the  preparation  for  preaching. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  preparation  for 
preaching,  one  general,  and  the  other  spe- 
cial.     The}'   are   both    important,    and    I 


138      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

propose  to  speak  of  both.  In  this  lecture, 
however,  I  shall  confine  myself  to  the  first. 
You  remember,  perhaps,  the  story  told 
of  that  eminent  preacher  after  whom  this 
lectureship  is  named,  that  when  upon  one 
occasion  he  was  asked  how  long  it  had 
taken  him  to  prepare  a  sermon  which  he  had 
just  delivered,  he  replied,  "Forty  years." 
I  do  not  know  whether  the  story  is  true ; 
but  it  might  be.  It  is  substantially  true  of 
every  sermon  preached.  The  time  involved 
in  the  preparation  is  more  than  the  few 
days  which  have  been  devoted  to  the  task, 
and  includes  within  its  compass  all  the 
days  on  earth  which  the  preacher  himself 
has  lived.  It  began,  that  preparation,  when 
the  preacher  began ;  not  when  he  began  to 
be  a  preacher,  but  when  he  began  to  be,  or 
rather  before  he  began.  It  began  with  his 
ancestors ;  and  he  is  what  he  is  because 
they  were  what  they  were.  And  the  tem- 
perament or  the  talent  which  is  possessed 
by  him  he  has  received  from  them,  or  re- 
ceived through  them  from  God.  He  enters 
upon  his  task,  and  he  performs  his  task, 
with  a  preparation  for  it  which  has  been 
bestowed  upon  or  given  to  him  ])y  God. 
First  of  all,  then,  the  person  who  is  ex- 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  139 

pecting  to  preach  should  try  to  be  reason- 
ably sure  that  he  has  been  thus  prepared 
by  nature  or  by  God.  He  should  try  to 
be  reasonably  sure  that  God  has  bestowed 
upon  liini  a  fitness  for  the  work.  It  is  not 
every  good  young  man  who  is  called  upon 
to  be  a  preacher.  Goodness,  of  course,  is 
essential ;  and  it  goes  without  saying  that 
that  is  a  qualification  which  he  should 
possess.  But  that  is  a  qualification  which 
everybody  ought  to  possess  for  his  Avork  in 
life,  the  layman  as  well  as  the  clergyman, 
and  the  lajnnan  as  much  as  the  clergyman. 
For  there  are  not  two  kinds  of  goodness, 
there  are  not  two  moral  codes,  one  for  those 
who  preach,  and  another  for  those  who  hear, 
but  the  same  moral  code  for  both,  emanat- 
ing from  the  same  God.  If  it  is  the  dut}- 
of  the  minister  to  be  good  after  the  highest 
type  of  goodness,  —  or  rather  after  the 
only  tj'pe,  for  there  is  but  one,  —  so  is  it 
the  duty  of  the  mechanic,  the  lawyer,  the 
man  of  affairs,  the  president  of  the  rail- 
road, the  president  of  the  bank.  But  just 
as  in  the  case  of  the  mechanic  somethino- 
more  than  goodness  is  required,  so  in  the 
case  of  the  preacher  is  something  more  re- 
quired.    Each  of  them  must  have,  in  order 


140  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

to  do  his  work,  or  to  do  it  fairly  well,  some 
aptitude  for  his  work,  some  gift  or  fitness 
for  it  which  has  been  bestowed  by  nature, 
and  that  means  when  rightly  interpreted, 
which  has  been  bestowed  by  God.  With- 
out that  preparation  he  will  not  be  success- 
ful, and  the  work  to  which  he  devotes 
himself  will  not  only  be  ill  done,  but  un- 
comfortably done.  He  will  not  rejoice  in 
his  work ;  he  will  not  be  happy  in  it. 

But  how  can  a  person  know  whether  or 
not  he  possesses  that  kind  of  preparation? 
How  can  a  person  who  is  contemplating 
the  work  of  the  ministry  know?  He  can 
know  after  he  has  tried.  But  how  can  he 
know  before  ?  He  cannot  know  fully  and 
infallibly,  "  for  the  fire  in  the  flint  shows 
not  till  it  be  struck."  And  yet  I  think  he 
can  tell  with  a  reasonable  degree  of  assur- 
ance even  before  it  be  struck  whether  the 
fire  is  there.  Emerson  somewhere  says, 
not  in  these  words,  but  in  substance,  that 
what  a  person  most  of  all  desires  to  do  in 
the  world,  is  as  a  rule  the  thing  wdiich 
best  of  all  ]ie  can  do,  and  ought  to  try 
to  do,  and  was  perhaps  intended  to  do. 
Like  so  many  of  Emerson's  aphoristic  say- 
ings, this  one  has  to  be  taken,  not  as  un- 


PREPARING  HIS  ^f ESS  AGE  141 

qualifiedly  and  as  in  all  cases  true,  but 
only  as  measurably  true.  But  it  is  measur- 
ably true.  And  of  one  who  is  considering 
whether  or  not  he  is  called  to  preach  the 
Gospel  of  Christ,  whether  or  not  he  is  fitted 
for  that  particular  work,  and  has  been  pre- 
pared and  sent  of  God  to  do  it,  I  should 
simply  ask  these  questions,  or  should  ask 
him  rather  to  ask  them  of  himself :  Is  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  the  thing 
which  most  of  all  I  desire  to  do  in  the 
world?  Does  it  like  nothing  else  appeal 
to  and  arouse  and  seem  to  set  me  on  fire 
with  an  enthusiasm  for  it?  Does  it  pos- 
sess for  me  an  attraction  which  nothing 
else  possesses,  not  because  of  what  in  the 
way  of  personal  reward  it  may  be  able  to 
give  me  in  this  world  or  another,  but  just 
because  of  what  it  seems  to  be  in  itself  as 
its  own  sufficient  reward?  Does  it  make 
me  feel  as  I  think  of  it,  or  see  it,  and  hear  it 
done  by  one  who  is  fitted  to  do  it,  that  I, 
too,  am  a  preacher,  —  not  perhaps  as  he  is, 
I  cannot  hope  for  that,  but  still  that  I  am 
a  preacher,  that  I  ought  to  be,  that  I  must 
be,  and  that  I  cannot  rest  contented  until  I 
try  to  be  ? 

I  do  not  say  that  that  is  an  infallible 


142      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

test,  but  it  is  a  test.  If  a  person  feels  with 
reference  to  the  work  of  preaching  in  some 
such  way  as  that,  then  I  think  he  may  be 
reasonably  sure  that  God  has  given  liim 
that  general  preparation  or  fitness  for  the 
work  which  first  of  all  he  must  have,  and 
which  will  enter  as  a  factor,  secretly  per- 
haps and  unconsciously  to  himself,  yet 
vitally  and  helpfully,  into  the  preparation 
of  every  sermon  which  he  prepares. 

That  is  the  first  requisite  in  the  general 
preparation  for  preaching ;  but  it  is  not  all. 
The  treasures  which  God  has  put  in  the 
human  mind  and  soul  are  like  the  treasures 
which  He  has  put  in  the  ground.  They 
are  there ;  but  they  are  there  to  be  brought 
out.  If  they  are  not  there,  they  cannot  of 
course  be  brought  out ;  but  they  are  there 
as  though  they  were  not  until  they  are 
brought  out.  You  cannot  make  a  preacher 
of  one  who  is  not  born  to  be  a  preacher, 
who  does  not  have  it  in  him ;  and  yet  he 
has  it  in  him  as  though  he  had  it  not  until 
it  has  been  brought  out.  And  what  will 
brino^  it  out  ?  The  same  thingf  that  brino-s 
the  treasure  out  of  the  ground.  Work  will 
bring  it  out,  —  hard  work,  and  only  hard 
work.      In   other  respects   also   does   the 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  143 

parallel  sometimes  hold,  not  alwaj's,  but 
sometimes,  that  the  better  and  finer  the 
treasure,  the  harder  is  the  work  required. 
Herein,  is  the  sajdng  of  Carlyle  true,  that 
genius  means,  or  is,  the  capacity  for  in- 
finite exertion.  And  the  preacher  who 
trusts  chiefly  to  his  native  gifts  and  endow- 
ments, his  quickness  of  thought,  his  fluency 
of  speech,  his  readiness  with  his  pen,  or  his 
facility  with  his  tongue,  his  poetical  tem- 
perament or  his  oratorical  temperament,  or 
whatever  his  gifts  may  be,  without  trying 
to  train,  and  discipline,  and  enrich  them  by 
patient  and  persistent  study,  by  the  hardest 
kind  of  hard  work,  will  fuid  sooner  or  later, 
and  sooner  rather  than  later,  and  his  con- 
gregation will  also  find,  that  he  is  preached 
out,  and  that  he  has  exhausted  both  himself 
and  them. 

Now,  that  is  a  kind  of  general  preparation 
for  preaching  which  you  are  acquiring  here. 
That  is  what  you  are  here  for ;  but  it  does 
not  end  here,  it  only  begins  here;  and 
hard  as  your  work  here  may  be,  it  will  be 
still  harder  when  you  go  away  from  here. 
Every  man  who  succeeds  to-day  isva  hard 
worker.  He  may  not  work  with  worry, 
and  he  will  not  work  well  if  he  does  so 


144      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

work ;  but  he  works  with  energy.  This  is 
true  of  every  calling.  It  is,  I  think,  partic- 
ularly true  of  the  minister's  calling  to-day. 
Some  people  have  the  notion  that  the  onl}^ 
day  in  the  week  on  which  the  minister  is 
very  busy  is  Sunday.  I  have  not  found  it 
so.  Sunday  to  me  has  always  been  the 
easiest  day  in  the  week ;  and  when  people 
ask  me,  as  they  sometimes  do.  When  are 
you  most  at  leisure  ?  or,  When  can  we  hope 
to  find  you  the  most  disengaged  ?  I  usually 
say,  "  On  Sunday."  I  have  less  to  do  then 
than  on  any  other  day  in  the  week.  It  is 
true  that  I  preach  on  Sunday ;  and  it  often 
happens  that  I  preach  —  though  it  ought 
not  to  happen  —  two  or  three  times  on 
Sunday ;  but  then  I  don't  mind  preaching 
when  I  am  ready  to  preach,  any  more  than 
I  mind  eating  my  dinner  when  I  am  hun- 
gry. But  where  the  labor  comes  in,  is  in 
the  cooking  of  the  dinner,  and  in  the  going 
to  market,  and  the  many  different  markets 
to  get  the  things  to  cook.  That  is  what 
takes  time  for  the  subsequent  pranchal  exer- 
cise, as  for  the  subsequent  pulpit  exercise. 
Hard,  therefore,  as  your  work  here  may 
be,  it  must  be  still  harder  when  you  go 
away  from  here.     You  must  still  be  stu- 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  145 

dents,  and  diligent  students  ;  and  there  are 
tliree  directions  wliicli  your  studies  must 
take.  You  must  be  students  first  of  the 
Bible.  You  have  not  yet  exhausted,  you 
never  will  exhaust,  the  truth  of  that  won- 
derful book,  or  that  wonderful  collection 
of  books;  and  the  more  you  study  the 
Bible,  the  more  will  you  be  impressed  both 
with  its  wonderfulness  and  its  inexhausti- 
bleness ;  provided,  that  is,  you  study  it 
with  a  fresh  and  open  mind,  not  taking 
something  to  it  which  you  already  know, 
to  be  by  it  confirmed,  but  ready  always  to 
find  in  it,  and  expecting  always  to  find  in 
it,  something  more  than  you  know,  and 
which  will  add  to  your  knowledge.  You 
must  study  it,  too,  let  me  say,  not  simply 
as  a  book  of  yesterday,  but  as  a  book  of 
to-day ;  not  simply  as  a  book  of  facts  which 
happened  long  ago,  but  as  a  book  of  prin- 
ciples rather  which  are  in  operation  now, 
and  which  the  facts  illustrate  and  suggest. 
This  is  not  always  done.  Some  persons 
study  the  Bible  in  the  way  that  Balzac 
makes  one  of  his  characters  say  history 
ought  to  be  studied,  not  to  find  "prin- 
ciples, but  only  events ;  not  to  find  laws, 
but  only  circumstances."  That  is  the 
10 


146  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

way  in  which  some  persons  study  the 
Bible,  and  the  way  too  in  which,  judg- 
ing them  by  their  sermons,  some  preach- 
ers seem  to  study  it.  They  find  in  it  a 
fact  in  the  history  of  Abraham,  or  Moses, 
or  Samuel,  or  David;  or  an  event  in  the 
history  of  Israel ;  or  a  circumstance  in  the 
history  of  the  apostles  ;  and  then  they  tell 
the  people  all  about  that  fact,  that  circum- 
stance, that  event ;  and  the  people  are  not 
much  interested  in  that  circumstance  or 
that  event.  Why  should  they  be?  It 
happened  so  long  ago,  and  to  people  so  far 
away,  in  Jerusalem,  or  Babylon,  or  Arabia, 
and  has  apparently  but  little  to  do  with 
what  is  happening  now.  And  they  take,  I 
say,  in  consequence,  but  little  interest  in 
it;  and  the  interest  which  they  do  take  is 
a  kind  of  archaic  interest,  like  the  interest 
which  one  takes  in  old  monumental  re- 
mains, or  the  forms  of  plants  and  animals 
which  have  become  extinct.  Very  curious 
things  they  must  have  been,  and  wonder- 
ful, and  real  and  true.  And  how  well  the 
preacher  describes  them  ;  how  eloquently  he 
sets  them  forth;  what  choice  language  he 
uses  in  discoursing  to  the  people  about  them. 
And  yet  they  are  not  their  things,  or  do 


PREPARING   HIS   MESSAGE  147 

not  seem  to  be  theirs,  as  things  which  bear 
on  them.  And  while,  perhaps,  there  is  in 
his  fine  discourse  about  them  some  little 
practical  lesson,  or  helpful  moral  drawn, 
it  is  an  incidental  or  parenthetical  lesson, 
or  a  moral  drawn  by  the  way ;  and  the 
things  and  the  events  from  which  the  moral 
is  drawn  do  not  seem  real  and  near,  or 
to  be  alive  now,  as  they  were  alive  once, 
or  to  be  as  true  for  the  people  living  now 
as  for  the  people  living  then. 

Now  that,  it  seems  to  me,  is  not  what 
the  Bible  is,  nor  is  that  the  way  in  which 
to  study  it.  Your  aim  should  be,  not  sim- 
ply to  find  archaic  facts  and  historical  state- 
ments in  it,  but  beneath  those  facts  and 
statements,  whatever  they  may  be,  living 
rules  and  laws,  or  principles  and  truths ; 
not  true  because  they  are  in  it,  but  in  it 
because  they  are  true,  universall}^  true, 
eternally  true,  for  all  times,  for  all  places, 
for  all  persons,  whether  they  lived  long 
ago  in  Palestine  or  Arabia,  or  whether  they 
are  living  now  in  Connecticut  or  China.  It 
is  only  in  this  way  that  you  can  make  the 
Bible,  and  the  truth  which  the  Bible  con- 
tains, a  real  and  living  factor  in  the  life  of 
the  modern  world.     Of  what  value  will  be 


14:8      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

the  stoiy  of  Adam  and  Eve  in  the  Garden, 
unless  you  can  also  show  that  it  is  the  story 
of  men  and  women  now?  Of  what  value 
will  be  the  story  of  the  call  which  came  to 
Abram  in  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  unless  you 
can  also  show  that  it  is  the  same  call  which 
comes  to  people  now?  Or  that  the  word 
which  was  spoken  to  Ezekiel,  dwelling  by 
the  Chebar  River,  is  the  word  wliich  is 
spoken  to  them,  dwelling  on  the  banks  of 
the  Hudson  or  the  Thames  ?  Or  that  the 
message  which  came  to  Isaiah  in  Jerusalem 
or  Babylon  is  the  message  which  comes  to 
them  in  Boston  or  New  York,  and  a  mes- 
sage just  as  true  and  just  as  needed  now, 
as  it  was  true  and  needed  then.  That  mes- 
sage and  that  word  you  will  not  find  on 
the  surface  of  the  Bible.  You  must  dig 
for  it  beneath  the  surface  as  the  miner  digs 
for  the  ore ;  and  in  your  attempt  to  find  it, 
like  the  miner,  you  will  find  some  local  stuff 
and  material  closely  connected  with  it,  but 
which  is  not  it. 

I  remark  again  that  you  must  use  your 
imagination  in  your  effort  to  find  it,  —  a  dan- 
gerous weapon  and  a  sharp  one,  which  cuts 
both  ways,  towards  error  as  well  as  truth, 
but  which,  nevertheless,  you  must  use  in 


PREPARING  ins  MESSAGE  149 

trying  to  find  in  the  Bible  the  living  word 
of  God.  And  then  when  you  have  found 
it  you  must  give  it  forth  and  present  it,  not 
alwa^'s  in  that  rhetorical  and  idiomatic  form 
with  which  it  was  originally  associated  and 
which  is  but  the  superficial  accessory  of  it, 
but  in  that  form  of  expression  which  ap- 
peals to  the  people  now,  and  which  they 
now  understand  and  use.  In  this  way  you 
will  do  what  you  can  to  make  them  see 
and  feel  that  wliile  it  is  old  it  is  new,  the 
word  of  God  to  Isaiah,  and  the  word  of 
God  to  them ;  the  message  which  Ezekiel 
heard,  and  which  they  should  also  hear. 
Study  the  Bible  in  that  way,  with  a  rever- 
ent imagination,  with  an  open  heart  and 
mind;  trying  alwa3-s  to  find,  not  merely 
local  facts,  but  eternal  principles  in  it ;  not 
as  a  book  of  yesterday,  but  as  a  book  of 
to-day;  not  as  a  book  which  shows  that 
once,  long  ago,  God  was  near  to  the  world, 
but  as  a  book  which  shows  that  He  is 
always  near  to  the  world.  Then  it  will 
not  be  necessary  for  you  to  be  always  try- 
ing to  prove  and  vindicate  the  Bible,  try- 
ing to  prove  to  the  people  that  it  is  the 
word  of  God,  or  Jioiv  it  is  the  word  of  God. 
It  will  he  the  word  of  God,  and  will  prove 


150      TEE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

itself  to  be,  first  to  you,  and  tlien  tlirougli 
you  to  tliem,  quiclv,  powerful,  penetrating, 
and  profitable  for  doctrine,  reproof,  cor- 
rection, instruction  in  righteousness,  that 
righteousness  which  in  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures  is  declared  to  be  eternal,  and 
which  Israel  tried  to  express,  and  which  in 
the  New  Testament  Scriptures  is  defined 
as  love,  and  which  Jesus  Christ  embodied. 
And  topics  will  it  give  you,  and  subjects 
will  it  suggest,  which  will  always  be  fresh, 
and  timely,  and  pertinent  to  the  occasion. 
And  topics,  too,  they  will  be  Avliich  you 
will  never  exhaust,  will  never  reach  the 
end  of  in  meaning  or  in  number ;  and  fast 
and  often  as  the  Sundays  come  you  will 
never  be  preached  out. 

But  there  is  still  another  direction  which 
your  studies  should  take.  The  preacher 
should  be  a  man  of  broad  and  generous 
culture,  and  should  study,  not  only  the 
Bible,  but  books  outside  of  the  Bible. 
Those  other  books  will  help  him  to  teach 
and  interpret  the  Bible,  will  help  him  to 
know  the  Bible,  to  understand  the  Bible, 
and  will  help  him  to  help  the  people  to 
understand  the  Bible.  And  by  this  I  do 
not  mean  that  they  will  furnish  him  with 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  lol 

facts,  and  incidents,  and  stories  which  he 
will  be  able  to  use  as  illustrations  in  preach- 
ing, thus  making  liis  preaching  because 
more  pictorial,  more  interesting  and  attrac- 
tive. That  indeed  they  will  do,  and  that  is 
desirable ;  for  an  apt  illustration  in  preach- 
ing is  always  helpful.  But  here  let  me 
say,  in  passing,  that  it  must  be  an  illustra- 
tion which  is  the  preacher's  own ;  not  ne- 
cessarily one  which  he  has  invented  and  in 
that  sense  made  his  own,  but  one  that  he 
has  found  in  the  course  of  his  general  read- 
ing. There  are,  I  believe,  books  of  illus- 
trations, stories,  incidents,  and  anecdotes 
which  are  intended  to  be  a  kind  of  homi- 
letical  bank,  upon  which  the  preacher  can 
draw  at  sight  without  the  usual  discount ; 
and  there  is  apt  to  come  a  time  in  the  ex- 
perience of  every  preacher  (it  usually  comes 
very  early  in  his  experience)  when  he  is 
tempted  to  use  such  books.  My  advice  to 
you  is,  to  let  such  books  alone.  Don't  buy 
them ;  don't  borrow  them ;  don't  use  them 
at  all ;  and  if  you  have  them,  burn  them. 
They  will  not  help  you  in  preaching,  or  the 
help  with  which  they  help  you,  or  with 
wliich  they  seem  to  help  you,  will  be  spuri- 
ous help ;  and  the  sermon  which  is  adorned 


152      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

with  that  kind  of  adornment  will  be  to 
that  extent  a  spurious  kind  of  sermon.  It 
will  be  like  those  houses  of  mixed  archi- 
tecture which  suggest  the  thought,  as  we 
look  at  them,  that  before  they  were  com- 
pleted the  money  gave  out,  and  that  they 
had  in  consequence  to  be  finished  off  with 
a  cheap  and  spurious  kind  of  embellish- 
ment, which,  though  it  is  on  them  and  in 
them,  is  not  of  them,  and  which  does  not 
therefore  improve  them. 

Illustrations  in  preaching  are  good ;  but 
they  must  be  illustrations  drawn,  not  from 
books  of  stories  and  encyclopaedias  of  anec- 
dotes, but  from  that  general  fund  of  knowl- 
ledge  which  by  liis  personal  study  the 
preacher  has  made  his  own.  Then  they 
are  good  and  helpful,  and  may  be  legiti- 
mately used. 

But  that  is  not  the  reason  why  the 
preacher  should  be  a  diligent  student  of 
books  other  than  books  of  the  Bible :  not 
for  the  purpose  of  finding  illustrations  in 
them,  but  illustration  rather  of  how  the 
books  of  the  Bible,  or  the  truths  which  are 
in  those  books,  seem  to  touch,  and  meet, 
and  mingle  with  the  truths  contained  in 
other  books,  and  to  be  by  the  truths  of 


PREPARING   II IS  MESSAGE  153 

those  other  books  illuminated  and  con- 
firmed. It  is  only  in  that  way  that  one 
can  really  know  what  the  truths  of  the 
Bible  are.  You  cannot  surely  know  what 
a  young  man  is  when  you  see  him  only  at 
home,  under  his  father's  roof,  and  in  his 
father's  house,  and  how  he  acts  and  behaves, 
and  what  he  does  while  there.  You  must 
see  that,  but  you  must  see  more  than  that. 
You  must  see  him  away  from  home,  and 
living  in  other  places,  and  moving  in  other 
spheres,  and  going  forth  on  journeys,  and 
travelling  in  other  paths,  and  how  he  acts 
and  behaves,  and  what  he  does  while  there. 
So  with  the  truths  of  the  Bible.  In  order  to 
see  and  know  them,  5'ou  must  see  and  know 
them  not  only  in  the  Bible,  and  in  their 
Bible  home,  or  in  that  home  of  the  church 
which  the  Bible  has  made  to  protect  them, 
and  how  they  act  and  work,  and  what  is 
their  character  there.  You  must  see  them 
away  from  home,  in  history,  and  govern- 
ment, and  politics,  in  social  affairs,  in  com- 
mercial affairs,  in  the  affairs  of  yesterday 
and  in  the  affairs  of  to-day,  and  how  in 
those  affairs  they  energize  and  work,  and 
what  is  there  their  influence,  and  what  is 
there  their  fruit,  and  how  all  life  on  earth, 


154      TEE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PL  ACE 

individual  and  national,  is  strengthened 
where  they  are,  and  weakened  where  they 
are  not.  And  thus  by  seeing  how  well, 
how  admirably  they  work,  how  admirably 
they  behave,  not  only  in  their  home,  their 
venerable  Bible  home  or  their  ecclesiastical 
home,  but  also  away  from  home,  when 
brought  to  the  test  of  experience  in  the  life 
of  the  world  at  Large,  —  by  seeing  them 
there,  I  say,  you  will  apprehend  them  better, 
you  will  appreciate  them  better,  you  will 
acquire  new  confidence  in  them,  and  hold 
them  with  firmer  grasp. 

Then,  again,  you  will  find  in  the  books 
outside  of  the  Bible  new  and  unexpected 
aiDplications  made  of  the  truths  which  are 
in  the  Bible.  You  will  see  them  in  a  \\q\y 
perspective,  or  under  a  new  sky,  or  through 
the  medium  of  a  new  light,'  heights  and 
depths  will  be  disclosed,  and  vistas  made 
to  appear  which  otherwise  would  be  ob- 
scui-ed  and  unapprehended  by  you.  The 
truths  which  are  in  the  Bible  will  seem  to 
be  born  again,  to  have  within  them  a  life, 
to  have  within  them  a  power,  which  you 
never  dreamed  that  they  had.  Trairis  of 
thought  will  be  started,  and  suggestions 
will   be   awakened,   and  beauties   will   be 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  155 

revealed,  and  visions  will  he  unfolded, 
wliicli  will  come  to  your  soul  at  times 
with  a  great  and  glad  surprise.  There  will 
be  in  your  preaching  a  freshness  which  will 
make  it  more  interesting  both  to  you  and 
to  those  who  hear  you.  You  will  preach 
old  truths,  but  not  in  old  ruts,  and  the 
doctrines  will  seem  new  set,  and  to  have 
new  meanings  in  them.  So  much  depends, 
you  know,  not  only  in  physical  vision, 
but  also  in  mental  and  moral,  upon  the 
point  of  view.  And  the  knowledge  which 
you  acquire  outside  of  the  Bible  will  not 
be  other  knowledge  than  the  Bible,  but 
other  knowledge  of  it,  and  will  give  new 
points  of  view  from  which  to  see  the  Bible. 
Or,  again,  so  much  depends  for  the  devel- 
opment of  life  upon  the  atmosphere,  and 
things  which  seem  to  be  dead  and  to  have 
no  life  at  all  in  one  kind  of  atmosphere, 
are  energized  and  quickened  and  vitalized 
in  another.  And  your  studies  outside  of 
the  Bible  will  give  a  new  atmosphere  to  the 
Bible ;  and  in  that  new  atmosphere  many 
of  the  germinal  truths  which  are  in  the 
Bible,  and  which  to  you  are  in  it  as  though 
they  were  not  in  it,  will  open,  and  expand, 
and  grow,  and  yield  new  blossom  and  fruit, 


156      THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

and  become  to  you  alive,  and  will  make 
your  preaching  alive. 

Is  not  that  the  reason,  or  one  of  the 
reasons  at  least,  why  the  pulpit  to-day  is 
sometimes  heavy  and  dull  ?  It  is  learned 
enough,  and  scholarly  enough,  but  it  is  too 
exclusively  a  theological  scholarship,  or  an 
ecclesiastical  learning.  And  would  it  not 
make  the  pulpit  more  attractive  and  edify- 
ing if  it  had  around  it  more  of  the  atmos- 
phere of  another  kind  of  learning,  with  a 
view  to  giving  it  a  deeper  and  livelier 
insight  into  the  word  of  God,  and  making 
it  see  some  finer  and  better  meanings  in 
that  word  of  God?  We  sometimes  hear 
it  said  that  what  is  needed  in  preaching  to- 
day is  not  that  it  should  be  more  eloquent 
and  learned,  but  more  expository  and  scrip- 
tural; that  it  should  be  more  closely  con- 
tined  to  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ.  And  that  I  believe  is  true.  The 
people  who  go  to  church  to-day  go  there  to 
be  helped.  They  have  been  working  hard 
all  week  long,  and  they  want  to  hear  some- 
thing that  shall  strengthen,  and  refresh, 
and  inspire  them,  and  lift  them  up  towards 
a  better  and  purer  life.  They  have  been 
listening  to  the  words  of  man,  which  are 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  157 

not  always  iiispiring  words,  and  now  tliey 
want  to  listen  to  the  word  of  God  for 
a  while,  and  lay  hold  on  eternal  life,  and 
to  touch  as  it  were  the  hem  of  the  garment 
of  Jesus  Christ.  And  that  will  be  the  best 
and  most  helpful  kind  of  preaching  which 
will  enable  them  to  do  it. 

Let  your  preaching,  then,  be  expository 
and  Scriptural,  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ.  And  in  order  that  it  may  be 
that,  study  the  Bible.  And  in  order  that 
you  may  know  better  Avhat  the  Bible  is,  do 
not  confine  yourselves  in  your  study  of  the 
Bible  to  the  study  of  the  Bible  itself,  or 
to  the  study  of  books  and  commentaries 
written  upon  the  Bible.  Begin  there,  but 
do  not  stop  there.  Study  the  Bible  through 
books  wdiich  are  not  themselves  biblical, 
—  through  history,  and  philosophy,  and 
poetry,  and  science,  and  fiction,  —  and  you 
will  understand  better  what  the  Bible  is, 
and  also  what  is  in  it,  and  will  be  able 
better  to  bring  it  out,  and  better  to  enforce 
and  apply  it. 

What  particular  course  or  method  you 
should  adopt  in  traversing  that  field  of 
literature  which  lies  outside  of  the  Bible, 
it  is  for  you  to  determine ;  only  do  not 


158     THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

neglect  it,  or  tliink  that  in  studying  it  you 
are  neglecting  the  Bible.  You  are,  on  the 
contrary,  studying  the  Bible,  and  getting 
ready  to  preach  it,  not  only  more  attrac- 
tively, but  more  effectively  as  well. 

But  there  is  still  another  direction  which 
your  studies  must  take.  You  must  be 
students  of  human  life  ;  not  simply  as  it 
was  yesterday,  but  as  it  is  to-day.  The 
story  is  told  of  a  theological  instructor  in 
one  of  our  seminaries,  whether  true  or  not 
I  know  not,  and  it  matters  not,  that  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  saying  to  his  pupils  in  his 
closing  lecture  to  them,  "  Tln-ee  things  are 
necessary,  young  gentlemen,  to  success  in 
the  ministry,  —  grace,  learning,  and  com- 
mon sense.  If  you  have  not  grace,  God  can 
give  it  to  you.  If  you  have  not  learning, 
man  can  give  itu^o  you.  But  if  you  have 
not  common  sense,  neither  God  nor  man 
can  give  it  to  you."  His  purpose  I  pre- 
sume was  to  impress  upon  them,  not  so 
much  the  hopelessness  in  certain  cases  of 
acquiring  common  sense,  but  the  desirable- 
ness of  acquiring  it  in  all  cases.  And  surely 
it  is  desirable,  not  only  in  a  layman,  but  also 
in  a  clergyman.  He  cannot  get  on  without 
it,  or  cannot  get  on  well ;  and  the  only  way 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  159 

in  whicli  he  can  succeed  in  acquiring  it  is 
by  coming  into  touch  with  life,  —  the  life  of 
the  people  about  him,  their  real  and  actual 
life,  seeing  it,  feeling  it,  studying  it,  and 
learning  thus  what  it  is  by  personal  con- 
tact with  it,  and  how  to  guide  and  direct 
it.  That  is  a  quality  which  the  preacher, 
wliicli  the  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  like 
every  one  else,  must  have,  and  without 
which  his  preaching,  however  learned  and 
eloquent,  will  not  be  effective  preaching. 
And  yet,  while  the  Christian  minister  needs 
it  just  as  much,  it  is,  I  think,  for  him  more 
difficult  to  acquire.  He  is  so  fenced  about 
with  conventional  limitations  and  forms 
that  he  cannot  come  near  to  the  people, 
nor  can  the  people  come  near  to  him ;  and 
it  is  not  easy  for  liim  to  see  them  as  the}'' 
are.  He  cannot  do  what  other  people 
do,  and  go  where  other  people  go.  He 
lives  and  moves  and  acts  as  a  different  be- 
ing among  them.  His  pursuits  are  differ- 
ent ;  his  pleasures  are  different ;  his  habits 
of  life  are  different;  even  his  clothes  are 
different.  He  is  a  different  l)eing  among 
them,  and  they  meet  him  in  consequence 
in  a  different  way,  with  a  different  kind  of 
speech,  with  a  different  kind  of  conduct, 


160      THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

and.  with  reference  to  him  they  are,  or  at 
least  are  apt  to  be,  a  different  kind  of 
people  from  what  they  usually  are.  And 
so  I  say  it  is  hard  to  get  acquainted  with 
them,  to  know  them,  to  understand  them. 
His  office  makes  it  hard ;  and  that  knowl- 
edge of  human  life  wliich  he  ought  to  have, 
which  he  ought  to  acquire  in  order  to  be 
able  to  discharge  the  duties  of  his  office, 
his  office  does  so  often  prevent  him  from 
acquiring. 

How  is  this  difficulty  to  be  met  and  over- 
come ?  I  would  not  willingly  say  a  word 
which  would  tend  in  the  least  to  disparage 
or  depreciate  the  ministerial  office,  to  lower 
it,  to  cheapen  it,  or  to  detract  from  the 
dignity  of  it.  It  is,  in  my  judgment,  the 
noblest  and  highest  of  all  offices,  as  I  have 
been  trying  to  make  you  feel ;  and  in  every 
proper  and  lawful  way  I  would  magnify  it 
and  proclaim  its  worth  and  value,  and  set 
its  dignit}^  and  greatness  forth.  And  yet 
I  cannot  but  think  it  is  a  great  mistake  to 
so  regard  that  office  as  to  make  it  like  a 
fence,  and  a  high  fence,  and  difficult  to  get 
over,  between  the  man  on  one  side,  and  his 
fellow  men  on  the  other.  They  should  not 
so  regard  it,  and  he  should  not  so  regard  it. 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  161 

Ivet  liini  go  among  them  lutlier,  and  live 
and  be  among  them,  simply  as  a  man  among 
men,  as  an  honorable  and  high-minded  man, 
living  like  other  honorable  and  high-minded 
men,  trying  thus  to  win  their  confidence, 
and  to  secure  and  have  their  respect,  not 
chiefly  because  of  his  office,  but  chiefly  be- 
cause of  himself.  And  if  there  is  to  be  a 
difference  between  them,  let  it  be  a  differ- 
ence in  maidiood  and  character,  and  not  in 
official  status.  Let  it  be  a  difference  which 
attracts  and  binds  them  more  closely  to 
him,  and  not  a  difference  which  repels  and 
puts  them  further  away. 

But  the  minister,  it  is  said,  is  often  pre- 
vented from  doing  what  other  people  do, 
innocent  though  it  be,  because  it  is  his  duty 
to  set  an  example  to  them.  In  one  sense 
that  is  true.  The  minister  of  Jesus  Christ 
should  set  an  example  to  men  ;  but  it  should 
be  a  real  example,  and  not  to  any  extent  a 
feigned  and  simulated  example.  It  should 
not  be  an  example  simjjly  for  the  sake  of 
example  ;  for  the  person,  whether  minister 
or  layman,  who  aims  to  be  an  example, 
simply  for  the  sake  of  example,  will  sooner 
or  later,  and  inevitably  and  in  spite  of 
himself,  become  more  or  less  of  a  hypocrite. 
11 


162      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

The  example  which  he  sets  Avill  not  be  the 
example  of  one  who  is  doing  what  is 
right  for  its  own  sake,  regardless  of  conse- 
quence, but  the  example  of  one  who  is 
doing  what  is  right  chiefly  or  in  part  for 
the  sake  of  others,  and  solicitous  of  con- 
sequence ;  and  the  example  which  he  sets 
will  not  be  a  good  example.  It  will  have 
more  or  less  of  the  element  of  dissimula- 
tion in  it,  which  people  will  be  quick  to  per- 
ceive. It  will  not  l)e  a  genuine  example ; 
it  vnW.  not  be  a  wholesome  example ;  and 
the  influence  which  it  exerts  will  not  be 
a  wholesome  influence.  Let  the  minister, 
I  say,  be  a  man  among  men ;  not  careless, 
not  lax,  not  indifferent,  but  at  the  same 
time  not  afraid  of  what  they  say  or  think, 
and  not  anxious  about  it.  Let  him  go  and 
be  among  them,  not  thinking  much  or  at  all 
of  the  impression  he  makes  upon  them,  but 
only  of  wliat  is  right,  and  careful  only  for 
that,  — honest,  fearless,  straightforward, 
and  scorning  consequence.  Whitcomb 
Riley  has  described  him,  — 

"  The  kind  of  man  for  you  and  me, 
He  faces  the  world  unflinchingly  ; 
And  smites  as  long  as  the  wrong  resists 
With  a  knuckled  faith,  and  force-like  fists. 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  163 

He  lives  the  life  lie  is  pveacliiiig  of, 

And  loves  where  most  there  is  need  of  love. 

And  feeling  still  with  a  faith  half  glad 
That  the  bad  are  as  good  as  the  good  are  bad, 
He  strikes  straight  out  for  the  right :  and  he 
Is  the  kind  of  man  for  you  and  me." 

That  is  tlie  kind  of  man  who  will  know 
men.  That  is  the  kind  of  minister  Avho 
will  know  men,  and  how  to  direct,  and 
lead,  and  be  an  example  to  them,  because 
he  is  of  and  among  them,  in  sympathy 
with  all  that  is  natural,  with  all  that  is 
human  in  them.  He  will  not  be  worldly, 
but  he  will  understand  the  world.  He 
will  not  be  a  participant  in  wrong-doing, 
but  he  will  know  wliat  wrong-doing  is  ; 
and  to  the  wrong-doer  he  will  know  how 
to  speak  a  strong  and  searching  word. 
Separate  from  evil  as  his  Master  was,  but 
not  separate  from  man,  as  his  Master  was 
not,  like  his  Master  he  will  know  what  is 
in  man,  and  something  of  his  Master's 
power  he  will  be  able  to  exert.  Go  among 
men,  therefore,  and  live  among  them,  and 
see  and  learn  how  they  live  and  what  their 
habits  are,  their  frailties,  their  temptations, 
their  sins.     Do  not  let  your  office  be  a  bar- 


164      THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

Tier  between  you  and  them,  but  an  open 
door  rather  that  leads  into  their  midst. 
That  is  v/hat  your  pastoral  visiting  should 
be,  not  simply  a  process  of  running  about 
and  placating  people,  and  persuading  them 
to  come  to  church.  It  has  always  seemed 
to  me  as  though  there  were  something  un- 
manly and  undignified  in  that.  It  should 
be  an  opportunit}^,  rather,  to  read  and 
study  new  pages,  or  to  read  and  study  new 
chapters  in  the  book  of  human  life,  as  you 
see  it  in  the  homes  and  families  which  you 
visit.  Often  will  you  find  in  that  book 
of  life,  not  only  new  subjects  for  sermons, 
but  new  and  better  Avays  for  the  preparing 
and  preaching  of  sermons.  But  not  only 
through  pastoral  visiting  should  you  seek 
that  opportunity :  seek  it  everywhere  ;  for 
if  you  are  to  preach  to  men,  you  must  know 
them ;  and  if  you  are  to  know  them,  you 
must  be  more  or  less  among  them.  You 
must  not  be  afraid  of  hurting  or  contami- 
nating yourselves,  or  your  character,  or 
your  reputation  ;  it  is  not  your  business  to 
be  afraid.  It  is  your  business  to  know  and 
minister  to  human  life  with  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Clirist,  to  know  its  needs  and  perils, 
its  struggles,  its  privations,  its  hardships. 


PREPARING  ins   MESSAGE  165 

not  in  a  general  way  as  you  learn  about  it 
from  books,  but  in  a  particular  way  as  you 
learn  about  it  and  know  it  from  your 
personal  knowledge  of  it.  That  is  your 
business ;  and  in  the  performance  of  that 
business  I  say  you  must  not  be  afraid ;  and 
if  3^ou  are  the  kind  of  man  that  a  minister 
ought  to  be,  with  high  and  noble  aim,  with 
pure,  lofty,  and  unselfish  purpose,  you 
need  not  be  afraid.  No  harm  M-ill  come  to 
you,  or  your  character,  or  your  reputation, 
but  much  that  is  good  will  come. 

Here  is  the  advantage  of  that  kind  of 
work  in  your  parishes  of  which  I  have 
spoken  in  a  previous  lecture,  and  which  is 
usually  designated  as  "  secular  "  work.  It 
will  at  least  give  you  a  better  and  truer 
knowledge  of  human  life  and  nature,  and 
how  it  thinks  and  feels,  and  what  it  really 
is ;  and  you  will  know  better  how  to 
preach  the  Christian  Gospel  to  it.  There 
will  be  in  your  sermons  a  straightness, 
a  downrightness,  a  directness  which  other- 
wise they  will  not  or  cannot  so  easily 
have. 

By  every  means  in  your  power,  then,  seek 
to  know  the  human  life  about  you,  and  to 
which  you  are  called  to  preach.     How  in- 


166      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

teresting  it  is ;  how  suggestive ;  how  much 
it  needs  preaching ;  and  how  much  to-day, 
if  you  know  it,  you  can  by  your  preaching 
help  it.  Study  not  only  books,  study  not 
only  the  Bible,  but  study  human  life  ;  and 
the  aptitude  for  preaching  which  God  has 
bestowed  upon  you,  you  will  thus  unfold 
and  develop,  and  be  better  prepared  to  use 
for  the  glory  of  God  in  the  world,  and  the 
good  of  man  in  the  world. 


THE   PREACHER  PREPARING  HIS 
MESSAGE 

SPECIAL  PREPARATION 


THE  PREACHER  PREPARING   HIS 
MESSAGE 

SPECIAL  PREPABATION 

T  N  the  last  lecture  I  spoke  to  you  of  the 
general  preparation  for  preaching.  My 
purpose  now  is  to  supplement  what  I  then 
said,  and  to  speak  of  the  special  preparation 
for  preaching,  of  the  preparation,  that  is, 
wliich  one  should  make  for  preaching,  say, 
next  Sunday.  That  is  what  next  Sunday 
lie  will  have  to  do.  How  shall  he  do  it? 
How  shall  he  get  ready  to  do  it?  How, 
in  other  words,  shall  he  best  prepare  him- 
self for  the  task  which  then  awaits  him? 
That  is  the  question  which  I  will  ask  you 
now  to  consider,  and  upon  which  I  will 
venture  to  offer  some  suggestions.  Before 
doing  so,  however,  let  me  say  that  I  recog- 
nize the  fact  that  what  is  valuable  for  one 
may  not  be  equally  so  for  all;  and  that 
every  person  must  work  out  his  own 
preacliing  and  his  own  method  of  [)reach- 
ing  as  he  must  work  out  his  own  salvation, 


170  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

and  learn  and  determine  for  himself  what 
for  himself  is  best.  And  yet  while  that  is 
true,  it  is  also  true  that  he  may  learn  some- 
thing from  the  experiences  of  others.  And 
if  the  little  that  I  have  learned  by  a  practi- 
cal experience  for  myself  shall  be  the  means 
of  helping  you  to  learn  a  little  for  your- 
selves, it  is  all  I  hope  to  accomplish. 

With  tliis  prefatory  remark,  let  me  pro- 
ceed to  consider,  with  you,  the  question, 
"  How  shall  a  person  prepare  himself  for 
the  immediate  duty  of  preaching  ?  " 

Observe,  I  do  not  say,  "  How  shall  he 
prepare  his  sermon  ?  "  That  is  a  different 
question.  To  prepare  a  sermon  is  one 
thing,  and  to  prepare  to  preach  is  another  ; 
and  the  preparation  involved  is  a  different 
kind  of  preparation.  It  is  in  this  latter  case 
both  more  comprehensive  and  more  per- 
sonal :  more  comprehensive,  because  more 
personal ;  and  the  whole  personality  of  the 
preacher  in  all  its  varied  make-up  enters 
into  the  task.  It  is  not  simply  a  process 
of  thinking  and  writing,  but  a  process  of 
living  and  being,  as  well  as  thinking  and 
writing,  and  involves  not  only  the  exercise 
of  the  mind,  but  the  exercise  of  the  soul, 
the  conscience,  the  heart,  the  body,  —  yes, 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  171 

even  the  body;  and  the  preacher  himself 
is  a  factor  in  his  preparation  to  preach. 
That  is  what  the  preacher  is  called  upon  to 
do,  —  not  to  prepare  sermons,  but  to  pre- 
pare to  preach ;  to  prepare  himself  to 
preach.  And  how  shall  he  do  it?  He 
must  have,  in  the  first  place,  something  to 
preach  about.  He  must  have  a  subject. 
And  how  shall  he  find  a  subject?  Will 
anything  do  ?  No  ;  anj^thing  Avill  not  do. 
He  must  have  something  which  at  that 
particular  time  is  particularly  appealing  to 
him.  It  is  not  necessary  that  it  should  be 
suggested  by  his  own  personal  exiDerience  : 
it  may  be  suggested  to  him  by  the  experi- 
ence of  others ;  by  the  need  of  the  congre- 
gation to  which  he  is  called  to  minister ; 
or  by  the  need  of  the  community  in  which 
he  is  called  to  live,  —  by  a  book,  by  a  visit, 
by  a  conversation,  by  a  circumstance  of 
recent  occurrence,  by  an  event  of  recent 
happening.  There  are  scores  of  waj-s  in 
which  it  may  be  suggested  to  him.  But  it 
must  be  something  which  when  it  is  sug- 
gested appeals  to  and  takes  hold  of  him, 
and  becomes  for  the  time  a  part  of  him, 
and  makes  him  feel  that  that  is  what  he 
must   surely  preach   about   next   Sunday. 


172      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

But  suppose  the  days  go  b}^  and  no  such 
subject  comes.  Sunday  is  coming.  There 
is  no  doubt  about  that ;  and  he  must  be 
ready  to  j)reach  when  it  does  come ;  and 
3'et  no  living  theme,  no  timely  theme  and 
appealing,  has  been  suggested  to  him. 
Will  not  that  sometimes  be  the  case  ?  Yes, 
it  will ;  but  it  ought  not  to  be  the  case 
very  often,  and  will  not  be  very  often  if  he 
has  been  diligent  in  making  that  general 
preparation  to  which  I  referred  in  the  last 
lecture.  I  said  then,  you  remember,  that 
he  should  be  a  diligent  student  both  of  the 
Bible  and  of  books  outside  of  the  Bible.  I 
add  now  that  while  he  should  not  study 
with  an  immediate  view  to  preaching,  he 
should  not  forget  in  his  studying  that  he  is 
a  preacher.  By  this  I  mean  that  he  should 
have  in  the  course  of  his  studying,  not  only 
the  scholar's  temper  seeking  knowledge  for 
its  own  sake  and  apart  from  its  practical 
value,  but  something  also  of  the  homileti- 
cal  temper.  He  should  have,  in  other 
words,  a  mind  that  is  open  towards  ser- 
mons or  towards  the  suggestion  of  sermons  ; 
and  as  from  time  to  time  subjects  are  sug- 
gested he  should  make  a  note  of  them,  not 
in  his  memory  merely,  where  they  will  fade, 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  173 

but  in  a  book,  where  tliey  will  not  fade. 
He  should  have  such  a  book,  or  a  number 
of  such  books,  beside  him  on  his  table 
while  he  is  studying,  in  which  he  can 
write  down,  not  too  fully  nor  at  too  great 
length,  —  that  would  he  interruptive  and 
tedious,  —  but  fully  enough  to  subse- 
quently recall  the  subjects  suggested  for 
sermons,  and  making  at  the  time  a  hasty 
outline  of  them.  Then,  when  he  is  at  a  loss 
to  know  what  to  preach  about,  let  him  go 
and  consult  those  books,  those  books  of 
sermon  stuff,  not  of  somebody's  else  ser- 
mon stuff,  but  of  his  own  sermon  stuff,  or 
sermon  thought  and  outline.  Presently  he 
will  observe  that  his  divining-rod  begins 
to  dip ;  there  is  something  there  which 
attracts  him,  to  which  he  seems  to  be 
drawn.  He  has  not  fully  found  it  yet,  but 
he  is  finding  it.  His  sympathies  are  moved, 
and  he  yearns  towards  it.  The  blood  be- 
gins to  go  up  into  the  brain,  or  the  wheels 
begin  to  go  round,  and  it  will  not  be  long 
before  he  has  his  subject,  or  his  subject 
has  him,  and  takes  possession  of  him ; 
and  lie  will  clearly  see  and  know,  without 
any  misgiving,  what  to  preach  about  next 
Sunday. 


174  THE  PREACHER   AND  HIS  PLACE 

Let  me  advise  you,  then,  in  your  study- 
ing, your  reading,  or  j^our  thinking,  to  have 
such  books  beside  you,  to  catch  and  hold 
your  thoughts,  and  to  catch  them  just  as 
they  come,  and  to  hold  them  just  as  you 
catch  them,  without  making  an  effort  to 
group  or  arrange  them  in  an  Index  Rerum, 
or  according  to  the  letters  of  the  alphabet, 
or  with  any  sort  of  systematic  classifica- 
tion, —  that  will  be  burdensome,  and  will 
take  up  too  much  time,  —  but  just  for  the 
purpose  of  not  losing  them,  and  so  that  you 
can  get  them  again  when  you  want  them. 
I  have  quite  a  pile  of  such  books  in  my 
library  (pardon  this  allusion  to  myself ;  but 
I  must  be  more  or  less  autobiographical  in 
these  lectures,  and  am,  I  presume,  expected 
to  be),  and  I  find  them  very  helpful ;  and 
when  I  do  not  know  what  to  preach  about, 
I  turn  over  the  pages  of  those  books.  It  is 
like  pouring  a  dipper  of  water  down  the 
pump  when  it  is  dry  and  does  not  work : 
it  fetches  the  water,  and  the  static  fluid  in 
the  quiescent  pump  is  started  and  begins 
to  flow.  I  find  them,  I  say,  very  helpful ; 
and  so,  I  think,  would  you  find  them,  —  not 
my  books  but  yours ;  and  if  throughout 
your  ministrj^   you  make  it  a  practice    to 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  175 

keep  such  homiletical  notebooks,  you  will 
not  experience  much  difficulty  in  finding 
subjects  for  sermons  ;  for  the  preacher  wlio 
has  by  his  side  these  suggestive  aids  will 
generally  have  suggested  to  him  something 
to  preach  about. 

But  suppose  even  that  fails,  —  and  the 
best  devices  do  fail  sometimes,  —  what  then 
shall  he  do,  and  how  then  shall  he  proceed  ? 
Sunday  is  coming,  is  drawing  near,  and  he 
must  be  ready  to  preach ;  and  yet  he  has  no 
word,  he  has  no  message  to  preach.  His 
mind  is  a  blank  ;  he  has  turned  over  the 
pages  of  his  notebooks,  and  nothing  seems 
to  appeal  to  him,  nothing  seems  to  take 
hold  of  him,  and  his  mind  is  still  a  blank. 
What  shall  he  do  ?  Let  him  leave  his  books 
for  a  while,  and  try  to  forget  all  about  them, 
and  put  on  his  hat  and  go  out,  —  not  for 
physical  exercise,  though  that,  perhaps,  will 
help  him,  but  for  human  exercise,  for  the 
exercise  of  his  heart,  his  soul,  his  mind,  in 
the  midst  of  human  life.  If  he  is  living 
in  a  city  like  New  York,  let  him  go  down 
into  the  tenement  houses,  and  put  himself 
into  new  and  sympathetic  touch  with  that 
form  of  life  which  there  he  will  see  and 
find,  —  its  patience,  its  courage,  its  endur- 


176      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

ance ;  or  its  misery  and  its  degradation, 
and  which  there  afresh  he  will  feel.  Or 
let  him  go  into  the  business  houses,  into 
the  counting-houses  and  the  dwelling- 
houses  ;  and  whether  living  in  some  metro- 
politan centre  or  in  some  country  village, 
let  him  go  where  the  people  are,  where 
they  toil  at  their  tasks,  their  common 
every-day  tasks,  and  where  they  carry  their 
burdens,  their  hard  and  heavy  burdens, 
and  break  and  fall  beneath  them  !  Let 
him  study  and  learn  their  ambitions ;  let 
him  see  and  know  their  sorrows  ;  let  him 
hear  their  cries  of  distress,  their  hojjes, 
their  fears,  their  shames,  their  wrongs,  or 
their  wrong-doings  ;  let  him  feel  the  full 
pulse  of  their  life,  —  and  he  will  presently 
have  and  feel  some  subject  on  which  he 
can  preach,  some  subject  on  which  he 
must  2)reach. 

His  biographer  has  said  of  St.  Francis, 
the  eloquent  and  gifted  preacher  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  that  he  felt  himself  the  man 
in  whose  body  were  born  all  the  efforts, 
the  desires,  and  the  aspirations  of  men, 
with  whom,  in  whom,  through  whom,  they 
were  yearning  to  be  renewed  and  to  be 
born  again,  and  that  in  that  respect,  more 


PEEPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  177 

than  by  any  external  imitation,  he  was  to 
them  a  Christ.  And  the  preacher  who, 
like  St.  Francis  or  like  St.  Francis'  Mas- 
ter, goes  out  among  the  people,  and  by  his 
sympathy  with  them  embodies  them  in 
himself,  Avill  not  be  lacking  of  subjects  on 
wliich  to  preach  to  the  people. 

If,  then,  the  books  in  his  library  do  not 
give  him  the  theme,  let  him  leave  liis 
books  for  a  time  and  go  out,  and  try  to 
study  the  book  of  human  life,  and  he  will 
surely  find  a  theme. 

Assuming  now  that  he  has  found  it,  how 
shall  he  prepare  liimself  to  preach  on  it  ? 
What  shall  be  Ms  method  of  preparation  ? 
That  will  depend  somewhat,  will  depend  a 
good  deal,  upon  his  method  of  preaching. 
If  it  is  his  habit  to  preach  with  notes  or 
from  manuscript,  he  will  not  go  to  work  to 
prepare  himself  to  preach  in  the  same  way 
or  fashion  in  which  he  will  go  to  work  if 
it  is  his  habit  to  preach  without  notes. 
And  here,  perhaps,  I  should  say  something, 
as  I  presume  most  of  my  predecessors  in 
this  lectureship  have  said  something,  in 
regard  to  these  different  methods  of  preach- 
ing. My  own  practice  is  to  preach  with- 
out notes ;  and  of  course  I  prefer  that 
12 


178     THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

practice,  otherwise  I  should  not  practice  it. 
It  has  proved  itself  for  me  to  be  the  better 
way;  though  I  am  far  from  saying  that  it 
is  the  better  way  for  everybody.  I  am 
satisfied,  however,  after  having  tried  both 
ways,  that  preaching  without  notes  is  the 
better  way  for  me.  I  can  in  that  way  put 
myself  more  fully  into  my  preaching ;  and 
however  it  may  seem  to  the  people  who 
hear  me,  it  seems  to  me,  at  least,  as  though 
I  came  in  that  way  nearer  to  the  people, 
and  could  speak  with  greater  freedom  and 
more  directness  to  them.  A  manuscript 
fetters  and  binds  me,  and  I  seem  when 
speaking  from  it,  to  be  speaking  also  to  it. 
It  gets  in  my  way,  and  I  become  impatient 
of  it,  and  I  long  to  push  it  aside  and  look 
away  from  it,  and  not  to  look  back  at  it 
again,  but  to  continue  to  look  at  the  peo- 
ple ;  and  every  time  I  do  look  back  at  it 
again,  I  feel  as  though  something  had 
come  between  us,  and  broken  the  current 
between  us.  And  something  has  come 
between  us,  —  the  manuscript  has  come 
between  us;  and  I  experience  then  the 
truth  of  what  Dr.  Storrs  saj's,  that  paper 
is  a  non-conductor,  and  does  not  easily  let 
the    electric    current   go  through.      I  am 


PREPARING   HIS   MESSAGE  179 

sure,  then,  that  for  me,  preaching  without 
notes  is  the  better  way  to  preach;  and 
while  I  am  not  sure  that  it  would  be  the 
better  way  for  all,  I  am  sure  that  there 
are  many  who  would  find  it  the  better 
way  if  once  they  had  the  courage  to  try 
it,  and  the  persistency  to  keep  on  trying. 

You  Avill  pardon  me  again  if,  with  the 
hope  of  persuacUng  and  encouraging  some 
of  you  to  try  it,  I  refer  to  my  own  expe- 
rience, and  tell  you  how  I  was  induced  to 
try  it  myself.  I  had  been  in  the  ministry 
several  years  before  I  was  led  to  attempt 
it,  and  during  that  time  I  wrote  my  ser- 
mons fully  out,  and  preached  them  as  I 
wrote  them.  I  was  not  satisfied,  however, 
with  that  way  of  preaching,  and  was  al- 
wa^^s  restive  under  it.  I  w^anted  to  preach 
in  some  other  way.  I  wanted  to  preach 
without  notes ;  and  occasionally  I  did  at 
the  second  service  on  Sunday,  when  the 
congregation  was  smaller,  or  at  the  week- 
day lecture.  But  to  go  up  into  the  pulpit 
Sunday  morning  when  all  the  people  were 
present  and  to  preach  without  notes,  —  I  was 
horribly  afraid,  and  had  not  the  courage  to 
attempt  it.  Upon  one  occasion,  however, 
just  after  I  had  come  back  from  my  sum- 


180      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

mer's  vacation,  I  preached,  as  usual,  a  writ- 
ten sermon  which  seemed  so  exceptionally 
poor  (I  think  one  always  preaches  his  poor- 
est when  he  has  been  out  of  it  for  a  while) 
that  I  said  to  myself,  I  remember,  "Noav 
is  a  good  time  to  try  to  preach  without 
notes,  for  you  certainly  cannot  do  worse 
next  Sunday  morning  without  notes  than 
you  did  last  Sunday  morning  with  them." 
I  therefore  resolved  to  try,  and  with  a  good 
deal  of  trepidation  I  did  try.  I  selected 
as  my  text,  "  Forgetting  the  things  which 
are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  the 
things  which  are  before,  I  press  towards 
the  mark  ;  "  and  while  of  course  I  did  not 
allude  to  the  fact  that  that  was  just  what 
I  myself  was  doing  at  that  moment,  I  had 
the  consciousness  of  it,  —  the  consciousness 
that  I  was  at  that  moment  practising  what 
I  was  preaching,  and  trying  to  do  in  my 
way  what  I  was  telling  the  people  to  do  in 
theirs.  That  consciousness  helped  me  a 
little,  and  enabled  me  to  get  through  bet- 
ter perhaps  than  otherwise  I  should  have 
got  through,  and  some  of  my  vestry  came 
into  the  vestry  room  afterwards  and  quoted 
my  text  at  me,  "  Forget  the  things  which 
are   behind."      At   all   events,   I   did  get 


PREPARING  JUS   MESSAGE  181 

through,  and  1  am  glad  I  did ;  for  it  en- 
couraged me  to  try  it  again,  and  I  did  try 
it  again,  and  again.  I  have  been  tr^ang  it 
ever  since ;  and  althougli  I  liave  preached 
many  poor  sermons  since,  —  it  is  now  fif- 
teen years  ago,  —  the  poorest  of  them  have 
been  the  sermons  which  I  have  written. 

Having  made  bold  to  say  this  much 
about  ray  experience  in  preaching  without 
notes,  perhaps  I  should  go  on  and  say  a 
little  more  and  tell  you  sometliing  about 
my  method  of  preparation.  After  I  have 
found  my  subject  I  go  to  work,  of  course, 
to  think  about  and  develop  it,  and  I  do  my 
thinking  about  it  to  some  extent  in  words. 
I  think  with  a  pencil  in  ray  hand ;  and  many 
of  the  thoughts  as  they  come  to  me  I  try  to 
express  on  paper,  especially  if  when  they 
come  to  me  they  are  not  very  clear.  I  try 
to  make  them  clear  by  putting  them  into 
words  and  giving  expression  to  them  ;  and 
while  I  do  not  raeraorise  that  expression,  I 
find  that  in  preaching  it  often  comes  to  me 
easily,  naturally,  and  without  any  effort  on 
my  part  to  recall  it.  It  is  simply  an  in- 
stance of  the  mnemonic  aid  that  is  furnished 
by  clear  thinking.  That,  however,  is  but 
an   incidental   result,  and   my  purpose  in 


182      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

writing,  as  far  as  I  do  write,  is  simply  to 
make  sure  that  I  apprehend  with  distinct- 
ness the  thought  that  is  in  my  mind.  I 
want  to  make  sure  that  I  have  it,  and  not 
that  I  merely  seem  to  have  it ;  and  the  only 
way  sometimes  in  which  I  can  make  sure 
that  I  have  it  is  to  try  to  write  it.  And 
so  I  go  through  with  my  subject,  writing 
a  little  every  now  and  then,  sometimes 
more,  sometimes  less,  as  the  subject  seems 
to  require,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  writing, 
or  because  I  expect  to  use  it  in  preaching, 
for  I  do  not,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  thinking, 
and  the  clearness  of  the  thinking.  Then, 
when  I  have  got  tlu'ough  with  the  subject, 
—  no,  I  never  get  tlu'ough  with  it  until  I 
preach  it  —  it  is  in  my  mind  to  some  extent 
all  the  time,  not  only  when  in  my  study, 
but  at  other  times ;  I  live  with  it  more  or 
less  throughout  the  week,  and  it  grows  and 
develops  in  me,  and  becomes  a  part  of  me, 
and  more  and  more  I  have  it,  or  more  and 
more  it  has  me.  And  when  Sunday  morn- 
ing comes,  or  Saturday  afternoon  or  even- 
ing, I  look  over  the  notes  or  the  writings, 
many  or  few,  which  I  found  it  helpful  to 
make  in  the  tracing  out  or  the  clearing  up 
of  some  of  the  thoughts  of  the  sermon,  in 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  183 

order  to  be  sure  that  I  have  them,  and  then, 
without  taking  them  with  me,  as  best  I 
can,  I  preach.  I  do  not  even  take  the 
heads  or  outlines  with  me  into  the  pulpit ; 
I  take  nothing  with  me  but  the  text.  I 
tried  the  other  plan  at  first,  but  it  did  not 
work  well ;  it  hindered  me  almost  as  much 
as  a  manuscript  did.  I  cannot  tell  exactly 
how  or  why  it  hindered  me,  but  it  did.  It 
was,  I  presume,  like  trying  to  swim  by 
having  all  the  time  one  foot  on  the  bottom, 
or  one  hand  on  a  board ;  and  I  found  that 
the  better  way,  if  ever  I  was  going  to  learn 
to  swim,  was  just  to  jump  right  in  and 
swim  —  or  sink.  At  all  events,  I  did  jump 
in,  without  anything  to  depend  upon,  and 
after  a  fashion,  —  perhaps  not  a  very  good 
fashion,  but  still  after  a  fashion,  —  I  have 
been  swimming  ever  since,  or  preaching 
ever  since  without  manuscript.  I  do  not 
call  it  extemporaneous  preaching,  or  mcm- 
oriter  preaching,  —  it  certainly  is  not  that, 
or  not  consciously  that.  I  am  not  particular 
to  call  it  anything  except  preaching  with- 
out notes  ;  and  poor  as  the  preaching  may 
be,  it  is  the  best  that  I  can  do ;  and  my 
reason  as  well  as  my  excuse  for  referring 
to  it  now  is  to  encourage  some  of  you  to 


184     THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

try  it,  if  you  care  to  try.  If  you  want  to 
do  it,  I  am  sure,  from  my  own  experience, 
you  can  do  it ;  for  I  was  not,  and  am  not 
naturally  fluent  in  speech,  nor  do  I  possess 
the  faculty  above  the  average  of  thinking 
on  my  feet ;  and  the  little  x^ower  in  that 
direction  which  at  present  I  possess,  I  have 
acquired  by  practice  ;  and  what  I  have 
learned  to  do  a  little,  I  am  sure  that  most 
of  you  can  learn  to  do  better  and  more. 
Let  me  add,  however,  this  word  of  caution. 
~^  To  prepare  to  preach  without  notes  is  a 
much  more  difficult  process  than  to  iwc- 
pare  to  'preach  with  them.  If  you  adopt 
the  former  method  simply  as  a  makeshift, 
and  with  a  vicAV  to  finding  it  easier  and 
less  exacting,  you  will  surely  fail,  as  you 
surely  ought  to  fail.  But  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  you  addi'ess  yourselves  to  the  task 
with  earnestness,  and  thoroughness,  and 
persistency,  with  that  faith  in  the  truth  of 
your  message  which  you  ought  to  have,  and 
with  that  due  faith  in  yourselves,  which 
is,  after  all,  but  faith  in  the  God  who 
made  you,  you  will  not  fail.  Your  rhetoric 
may  not  always  be  the  best,  nor  your 
language  always  the  choicest,  and  yet 
sometimes  it  will  be  ;  and  it  is  quite  likely 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  185 

that  you  will  hesitate  at  times,  and  be  at  a 
loss  for  a  word,  and  become  a  little  in- 
volved. But  if  it  does  not  matter  much 
to  you,  it  will  not  matter  much  to  the  peo- 
ple, and  if  you  are  not  confused  by  it 
they  will  not  be  confused ;  and  your  mes- 
sage, though  broken  in  form  a  little,  nor 
always  to  your  satisfaction  when  you  come 
to  review  it  from  a  literary  point  of  view, 
will  have,  in  spite  of  its  ruggedness,  and 
sometimes  because  of  its  ruQ-ofedness,  an 
impressiveness  and  a  power  which  it 
would   not  otherwise  have. 

One  other  thing  let  me  say  about  this 
method  of  preaching,  in  answer  to  an  ob- 
jection which  is  sometimes  made  against 
it.  Suppose,  Avhen  the  time  comes  to  preach, 
the  preacher  himself  is  not  in  good  phys- 
ical condition ;  the  nerve  force  is  scant 
and  weak,  scintillating  sparks  of  pain,  and 
he  has  what  is  usually  called  a  nervous 
headache  ;  or  he  is  in  some  other  way,  and 
for  some  other  reason,  physically  below  par 
and  not  quite  up  to  the  mark.  Will  not 
this  make  it  more  difficult  for  him  to 
preach  without  notes  ?  Surely  it  wdll.  But 
it  will  also  make  it  more  difficult  for  him  to 
preach  with  notes.     It  will  make  it  more 


186      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

difficult  for  him  to  preach  at  all ;  and  per- 
haps in  such  a  case  he  ought  not  to  preach. 
But  if  he  is  not  too  sick  to  preach  from 
manuscript,  he  is  not  too  sick  to  preach 
without  manuscript ;  and  the  conscious- 
ness that  he  has  no  manuscript  to  depend 
upon  will  sometimes  have  the  effect  to  im- 
prove his  physical  condition,  and  put  him 
in  better  physical  form.  I,  at  least,  have 
often  found  it  so ;  and  in  an  experience 
of  fifteen  years,  in  which  I  have  had  my 
physical  ups  and  downs,  like  other  people, 
whenever  I  have  been  well  enough  to 
preach  at  all,  I  have  been  well  enough  to 
preach  without  manuscript. 

But  whatever  method  of  preaching  you 
may  adopt,  whether  with  notes  or  without 
them,  let  me  remind  you  again  that  there  is 
a  difference  between  preparing  sermons  and 
preparing  yourselves  to  preach ;  and  that  it 
Ms  this  latter  task  which  you  are  called  to 
perform.  You  may,  if  you  choose,  write 
your  sermons,  but  you  must  do  something- 
more  than  write  them.  You  must  write 
yourselves  into  your  sermons,  or  must  write 
them  into  yourselves.  You  must  manage 
somehow  to  make  the  sermon  which  you 
prepare,  the  expression  of  what  you  are,  or 


PREPARING  niS  MESSAGE  187 

of  what  throughout  the  week  you  have 
been,  not  only  thinking,  but  acting,  doing, 
living ;  it  must  be  as  it  were  to  your  peo- 
ple your  weekly  story  or  epic.  The  mes- 
sage which  you  have  heard,  it  must  be,  and 
not  only  heard  but  obeyed.  The  lesson 
which  you  have  learned,  it  must  be,  and 
not  only  learned  but  practised.  The  ideal 
which  you  have  seen,  it  must  be,  and  not 
only  seen  but  embodied  and  realized  and 
become.  Not  merely  some  truth  of  God 
must  it  be  which  you  have  carefully  written 
out  on  paper  and  put  away  in  the  di-awer 
until  the  time  comes  to  take  it  therefrom 
and  use  it,  but  some  truth  of  God  must  it 
be  which  the  Spirit  of  God  has  written  out 
in  you,  which  He  has  put  into  your  mind, 
your  soul,  your  very  blood,  so  that  when 
3^our  heart  beats  it  will  seem  to  beat  with 
it  and  send  it  pulsing  through  you.  Re- 
member always,  I  say,  that  you  are  not 
simply  to  prepare  a  sermon  for  Sunday,  but 
prepare  to  preach  on  Sunday.  As  inciden- 
tal to  this  you  may  use  paper,  twenty  sheets 
or  forty ;  but  be  careful  to  bear  in  mind  that 
the  paper  is  for  the  sermon,  and  not  the 
sermon  for  the  paper,  that  the  sermon  is 
lord  of  the  paper,  and  should  not  be  en- 


s 


188      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

slaved  by  it.  Then,  when  Sunday  comes 
you  will  be  ready,  not  merely  to  deliver  a 
sermon,  but,  what  is  more,  to  preach ;  and 
your  preaching  will  be  better  than  any 
mere  delivery  of  a  sermon,  however  fine 
and  admirable  the  delivery  may  be.  And 
you  will  not  need  any  books  on  oratory  or 
elocution  to  teach  you  how  to  preach.  To 
a  certain  extent  such  books  may  be  of 
assistance  to  you,  but  it  is  only  a  very  lim- 
ited extent.  Sometimes  they  are  helps, 
but  sometimes,  too,  they  are  hindrances ; 
and  your  instructors  in  elocution  will,  I 
am  sure,  tell  you  that  the  best  kind  of  elocu- 
tion is  the  elocution  of  the  man  who,  with 
some  gift  for  preaching,  stirs  up  the  gift 
that  is  in  him,  and  without  much  thought 
of  elocution  simply  prepares  to  preach. 

And  here  let  me  say  that  I  think  it  very 
questionable  whether  a  person  should  pre- 
pare to  preach  more  than  once  on  Sunday. 
Many  preachers  do  it,  I  know ;  but  there 
are  not  many  who  do  it  well.  It  is  ex- 
ceedingly difficult  to  do  it  well.  It  is  not 
difficult  to  sermonize  twice  on  Sunday ;  but 
it  is  difficult  to  preach  twice  on  Sunday, 
or  to  prepare  to  preach  twice.  One  living 
thought,  or  one  living  theme,  living  with 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  189 

the  preacher,  living  in  the  preacher 
throughout  the  week  that  intervenes  be- 
tween one  Sunday  and  another,  and  pre- 
paring him  to  preach,  is  usually  enough 
for  the  preacher,  and  is  usually  enough  for 
the  congregation.  It  was,  I  believe,  Mr. 
Beecher  who  said  that  two  sermons  on 
Sunday  were  like  two  wads  in  a  popgun, 
—  one  shoots  the  other  out;  and  that  is 
apt  to  be  true  with  reference,  not  only  to 
the  congregation,  but  with  reference  to  the 
preacher  as  well.  The  two  sermons  are 
apt  to  interfere  with  one  another,  and  hurt 
and  cripple  one  another ;  and  in  the  preacli- 
er's  mind,  as  in  the  congregation's  mind, 
the  tendency  of  one  is  to  shoot  the  other 
out.  I  am  aware  that  Mr.  Beecher  did  not 
observe  his  own  rule ;  but  Mr.  Beecher 
was  an  excej)tional  man,  and  yet  not  ex- 
ceptional enough  to  be  altogether  inde- 
pendent of  established  usage  and  custom, 
but  was,  like  the  rest  of  us  in  tliis  respect, 
victimized  by  convention  ;  and  it  would 
be,  I  think,  a  desirable  thing  if  the  conven- 
tion could  be  changed.  Instead  of  having 
two  preaching  services  on  Sunda}^,  it  would 
in  my  judgment  be  better  to  make  the  sec- 
ond service  a  different  kind  of  service,  — • 


190      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

a  Praise  Service,  if  you  please,  or  a  Prayer 
^  Service,  or  a  Vesper  Service  of  some  sort, 
or  a  service  simply  of  worsliip,  with  a  few- 
remarks  by  the  minister,  not  more  than  ten  or 
fifteen  minutes  in  length,  and  suggested  per- 
haps by  some  fragment  of  thought  left  over 
from  the  morning  discourse.  Or,  if  there 
are  to  be  two  preaching  services  on  Sunday, 
then  let  the  parish  provide  two  preachers, 
not  to  preach  to  the  same  congregation,  but 
to  different  congregations.  Why  indeed 
in  some  parishes,  especially  in  the  large 
cities,  would  it  not  be  a  good  rule  to  have 
not  only  two  preaching  services  on  Sunday, 
but  four  or  five  such  services  by  four  or  five 
different  preachers  ?  Why  should  not  our 
church  buildings  be  utilized  more  than 
they  are?  Looking  at  it  simply  from  a 
commercial  point  of  view,  is  it  not  a  poor 
and  inadequate  return  for  the  investment, 
to  have  them  open  only  for  two  or  three 
hours  on  Sunday,  or  for  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  hours  out  of  the  whole  year  ?  If 
I  could  do  in  this  matter  just  what  1  should 
like  to  do,  I  would  never  close  the  churches 
except  at  night,  when  everything  else  is 
closed.  I  would  keep  them  open  always ; 
not  only  on  Sunday,  but  on  everj-  other 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  191 

day ;  and  I  would  have  some  kind  of  serv- 
ice in  them  every  day  in  the  week  ;  not 
always,  perhaps,  a  preaching  service,  but  a 
service  of  some  kind.  In  the  case  of  many 
of  our  city  churches  that  is  what  is  done. 
That  is  what  is  done  in  St.  Bartholomew's 
Church.  It  is  open  every  day  in  the  year, 
with  the  exception  of  a  little  wliile  in  mid- 
summer, when  it  is  open  only  on  Sundays. 
With  that  exception,  it  is  open  every  day 
in  the  year,  and  every  day  in  the  year  there 
is  a  service  in  it.  This  involves  the  having 
of  more  than  one  minister  in  the  parish, 
for  one  minister,  of  course,  cannot  do  all 
that  in  such  a  case  is  required.  And  here 
let  me  say  that  if  there  are  to  be  several 
ministers  in  the  parish,  one  of  them  in  my 
judgment  must  be  the  head,  —  call  him 
Rector,  call  him  Pastor,  call  him  what 
you  please  ;  he  must  be  in  fact  the  head. 
I  know  that  some  of  my  Congregational 
brethren  differ  from  me  in  this,  and  that 
they  are  trying  the  experiment  of  having 
associate  pastorates ;  but  I  venture  to  ex- 
press the  opinion  that  it  will  not  work 
well,  or  that  when  it  does  work  well  it  will 
be  the  exception  and  not  the  rule.  In  the 
majority  of   cases,  however,  I  presume  it 


192  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

would  be  found  impracticable  to  have  more 
than  one  clergyman  in  a  parish ;  and  when 
that  is  the  case,  the  congregation  should 
be  contented  with  one  preaching  service 
on  Sunday.  It  will  be  better,  as  a  rule, 
for  the  parish,  and  better,  as  a  rule,  for  the 
preacher,  and  better  for  the  parish  because 
better  for  the  preacher.  One  message  a 
week  is  enough  for  him  to  prepare,  and 
enough  for  them  to  hear ;  and  if  they  in- 
sist on  more,  the  quality  will  be  sacrificed 
to  the  quantity,  and  they  will  both  suffer 
loss. 

I  remark  again  that  if  the  preacher  pre- 
pares himself  to  preach  in  the  way  that  I 
have  suggested,  he  will  have  to  prepare 
himself  with  a  new  preparation  for  every 
new  occasion  upon  wliich  he  preaches.  He 
will  not  have  much  use  for  old  sermons, 
unless  he  can  get  back  into  the  old  moods 
of  thought  and  the  old  moods  of  life,  of 
moral  and  spiritual  as  well  as  mental  life, 
—  those  old  appealing  moods  wliich  were 
with  him  indeed  and  possessed  him  when 
he  prepared  the  old  sermons,  or  when  he 
prepared  himself  to  preach  them.  Some- 
times he  can  do  that,  but  not  often ;  and 
usually  he  will  find  whep  he  preaches  an 


PREPARING  niS  MESSAGE  193 

old  sermon  that  it  is  an  old  sermon ;  and 
that  although  when  first  he  preached  it  it 
was  fairly  good  and  effective,  something- 
seems  to  have  gone  out  of  it  which  then  he 
felt  was  in  it.  And  something  has  gone 
out  of  it,  —  the  life  has  gone  out  of  it,  or 
part,  at  least,  of  the  life.  The  thoughts  are 
the  same,  the  arguments  are  the  same,  the 
illustrations  are  the  same ;  he  makes  the 
same  points,  and  perhaps  with  the  very 
same  words  ;  but  they  are  the  same  with  a 
difference,  and  that  difference  is  vital.  He 
preached  before ;  now  he  is  delivering  a 
sermon  as  a  substitute  for  preaching.  That 
is  not  always  the  case,  but  it  is  often  the 
case ;  and  while  there  are  some  sermons 
wliich  he  can  preach  over  and  over  again, 
and  preach  perhaps  better,  every  time  he 
preaches  them  because  they  are  the  product 
of  permanent  moods  of  thought,  of  mind, 
of  heart,  of  soul ;  there  are  not  many  such 
sermons,  and  he  will  not  produce  many 
such.  Instead,  therefore,  of  turning  over 
the  barrel  and  searching  from  time  to  time 
among  its  musty  contents  with  a  view 
to  finding  in  it  some  suitable  sermon  to 
preach,  it  would  be  better  to  let  it  alone. 
Or,  if  he  is  disposed  to  turn  it  over  very 
13 


194  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

much  or  often,  it  would  be  better  still  to 
destroy  the  barrel,  and  not  have  any,  so 
that  every  week,  with  little  or  nothing  in 
the  way  of  old  preparation  to  fall  back 
upon,  he  might  find  himself  committed  to 
the  task  which  is  always  new,  and  always 
interesting  and  stimulating  because  new, 
not  of  preparing  to  sermonize  for  half  an 
hour  on  Sunday,  but  of  preparing  himself, 
mind  and  heart  and  soul  and  body,  of  pre- 
paring himself  to  preach.  He  may  not 
always  preach  as  he  would  like  to  preach, 
or  as  he  feels  he  ought  to  preach ;  but  he 
will  always  feel  that  he  is  preacliing,  and 
his  congregation  will  feel  it,  and  will  like 
to  hear  him  preach ;  and  a  congregation, 
too,  place  him  where  you  please,  he  will 
always  have. 

One  thing  more,  it  seems  to  me,  the 
preacher  should  have  in  mind  in  prepar- 
ing himself  to  preach.  It  does  not  bear 
directly,  perhaps,  upon  his  preparation, 
and  yet  perhaps  it  does.  At  all  events,  he 
should  not  forget  it,  but  should  have  in 
mind  the  fact  that  he  is  preparing  him- 
self to  preach  to  an  assembly  of  men  and 
women  who  are  gathered  for  something 
else,  or  who  ought,  at  least,  to  be  gathered 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  195 

for  something  else  than  simply  to  hear 
him  preach.  They  are  gathered  for  prayer, 
for  praise,  and  to  engage  for  a  time  in 
worship,  and  in  the  various  acts  and  phases 
of  worship.  For  that  he  must  also  pre- 
pare. That  also  is  his  task,  not  only  to 
preach,  but  to  worship,  and  to  help  the 
people  to  worship ;  and  to  be  to  them,  not 
merely  the  prophet  of  God,  but  the  priest, 
—  not  in  the  Romish  use  of  tlie  term, 
as  the  human  hierophant  through  whom 
God's  blessings  come,  —  but  in  the  Protest- 
ant use  of  the  terra,  as  the  human  soul 
through  whom  God's  blessings  come.  On 
whose  soul  as  it  rises  to  God  the  souls  of 
the  people  rise,  and  by  whose  soul  as  it 
catches  the  inspirations  of  God  the  souls 
of  the  people  are  inspired,  and  enabled  in 
spirit  and  truth  to  engage  in  the  worship 
of  God.  Whether  he  can  do  that  with 
a  liturgy  or  without  one,  I  will  not  say. 
I  have  an  opinion  on  that  subject,  but  this 
is  not  the  time  nor  the  place  to  express 
it.  I  am  not  here  to  defend  or  advocate 
the  use  of  the  Prayer  Book.  But  whether 
you  use  in  your  parishes  a  liturgical 
form  of  worship  or  a  non-liturgical  form, 
I   may   at  least   urge   you   not   to   slight 


196      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

worship,  but  to  emphasize  and  make  much 
of  it,  and  to  try  to  induce  your  people  to 
make  much  of  it.  They  will  make  much 
of  it  if  you  yourselves  make  much  of  it ; 
and  it  seems  to  me  that  you  ought  to 
make  much  of  it.  Something  people  must 
worship;  something  they  do  worship, — 
wealth,  or  power,  or  nature,  or  humanity, 
or  God,  or  something.  The  only  question 
is,  what  ?  And  the  office  of  the  Christian 
minister,  in  part  at  least,  is  to  take  that 
innate,  ineradicable  impulse  of  the  human 
heart,  and  to  give  it  expression  towards 
God  as  Jesus  Christ  has  revealed  Him.  It 
is  to  quicken  in  the  mind  that  slumbering, 
spiritual  faculty  by  which  alone  man  can 
apprehend  the  reality  of  the  spiritual  life 
and  of  things  unseen  and  eternal. 

Our  human  nature  is  as  a  rule  very 
much  under  the  dominion  of  the  sensible 
and  the  near.  Things  at  a  distance,  or 
which  do  not  in  any  way  appeal  to  the 
physical  senses,  are  hard  to  realize.  That 
is  the  standing  difficulty  which  religion, 
dealing  as  it  does  so  largely  with  super- 
sensible matters,  must  always  encounter, 
and  which  it  essays  to  meet  and  overcome 
by   means    of    Christian   worship,   giving 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  197 

thereby  to  the  soul  that  consciousness, 
that  sureness,  that  certainty  of  itself  which 
can  only  come  by  communion  with  the 
pervading  and  eternal  soul  of  the  world, 
that  Father  in  whom  all  things  live  and 
by  whom  they  are  sustained.  Never  was 
it  more  needed  than  in  this  materialistic 
and  not  very  reverent  age,  —  an  age  which 
as  George  Eliot  says,  is  so  often  flippant 
and  coarse,  mistaking  a  cynical  mockery 
for  the  gift  of  penetration.  This,  she  says, 
is  the  impoverishment  which  threatens  us 
and  our  posterity,  —  the  new  famine,  the 
meagre  fiend,  Avith  lewd  grin  and  clumsy 
hoof,  breathing  a  mildew  over  the  harvest 
of  our  moral  sentiments.  The  office  of 
the  Clu-istian  ministry  is  to  try  to  recover 
men  from  this  flippant  and  irreverent 
materialism,  not  by  preaching  merely,  but 
by  lifting  them  up  into  the  consciousness 
of  that  higher,  nobler,  albeit  immaterial 
and  invisible  life  wliicli  comes  from  com- 
munion with,  and  is  found  in  the  worship 
of,  God. 

Make  much  of  worsliip,  then;  and  in 
making  much  of  worship  you  will  not  be 
making  little,  but  much  of  preaching  too. 
You  will  be  preparing  yourselves  to  preach 


198      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

on  those  great  and  important  themes  with 
which  the  pulpit  deals,  and  which  will 
never  grow  old,  and  to  answer  for  your 
people  and  with  your  people,  and  in  the 
midst  of  your  people,  those  great  and 
important  questions  whose  importunity 
will  never  abate.  For,  as  an  English 
reviewer  and  Congregational  divine  has 
said :  "  It  is  in  the  great  congregation 
where  heart  beats  with  heart,  and  breaths 
conspire,  and  common  beliefs  and  experi- 
ences draw  the  children  of  toil  and  pain 
into  close,  dear  fellowships  of  sympathy 
and  hope,  that  those  answers  will  best  be 
given.  .  .  . 

"•  There  is  a  power  in  public  worship, 
in  the  utterance  of  common  sorrows,  needs, 
and  hopes,  in  the  prayer  that  is  breathed 
and  the  praise  that  is  sung  in  concert,  not 
merely  with  the  crowd  that  fills  some 
particular  sanctuary,  but  with  the  innu- 
merable company  of  all  lands  and  ages  who 
have  drunk  of  the  same  spring  and  gone 
strengthened  on  their  way,  wliich  they 
strangely  miss  who  teach  that  worship  is 
a  worn-out  superstition,  and  that  only  in 
the  clear  light  of  law  can  men  walk  and 
be   blest.     Ah,    no,   while    man   sins   and 


PREPARING  HIS  MESSAGE  199 

suffers,  while  there  is  blood-tinged  sweat 
upon  his  brow,  while  there  is  misery  in  his 
home  and  anguish  in  his  heart,  that  voice 
can  never  lose  its  music,  which  speaks,  not 
through  preaching  merely,  but  through 
worship  as  well,  of  the  comfort  and  inspi- 
ration of  the  everlasting  Gospel  of  Clirist, 
which  seems  to  tell  the  sin-tormented 
spirit  the  tale  of  the  Infinite  Pity,  and  to 
bid  it  lay  its  sobbing  wretchedness  to  rest 
on  the  bosom  of  the  Infinite  Love." 

In  the  best  way,  then,  you  can,  in  the 
way  that  is  best  for  you,  try,  not  to  prepare 
a  sermon  simply,  but  to  prepare  yourselves 
to  preach,  and  to  prepare  yourselves  to 
worship ;  to  preach  to  the  people,  to  wor- 
ship vntlh  the  people,  and  thus  not  by 
preaching  merely,  and  not  by  worship 
merely,  but  by  preaching  and  worship  to 
lift  up  Him  who  has  "lifted  with  His 
pierced  hands  empires  off  their  hinges, 
turned  the  stream  of  centuries  out  of  its 
channel,  and  still  governs  the  ages  ; "  and 
who,  when  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men 
to  Himself. 


THE 
PREACHER    AND    THE    PARISH 


THE 
PREACHER  AND   THE   PARISH 

OO  far  in  these  lectures  I  have  been 
^  considering  the  preacher  simply  as  a 
preacher,  for  that  is  what  it  seems  to  me 
he  is  chiefly  called  to  be ;  and  with  those 
who  would  belittle  or  depreciate  that 
ministerial  function  I  have  no  sympathy. 
While  that,  howevei',  is  his  most  important 
work,  it  is  not  his  only  work.  He  is  a 
preacher,  but  he  is  more ;  he  is  a  worker 
in  the  pulpit,  and  he  is  a  worker  out  of 
the  pulpit.  He  is  a  worker  in  the  j^arish : 
not  in  his  personal  capacity  merely  as  a 
member  of  the  parish,  but  in  liis  capacity 
as  the  head  of  the  parish ;  and  the  parish 
which  has  made  him  its  head  and  over 
which  he  presides  is  the  instrument  with 
which  he  works.  And  a  very  effective 
instrument  for  Christian  work  it  is.  There 
are  not  many  workers  so  well  equipped 
as  he,  for  there  are  not  many  who  have 
a  constituency  so  compact,  so  tractable,  so 


204      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

sympathetic  as  the  Christian  minister  has. 
If  he  fails  to  use  that  effective  parochial 
instrument,  like  the  servant  in  the  parable 
of  the  talent  and  the  napkin,  he  is  failing 
with  a  culpable  ignorance,  perhaps  with  a 
culpable  sloth,  to  do  in  the  world  the  work 
which  he  might  do,  which  he  ought  to  do, 
and  for  the  doing  of  which  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God  he  has  been  so  especially 
equipped. 

It  is  one  thing,  however,  to  have  an 
instrument  given  with  wliich  to  do  a  work ; 
it  is  another  thing  to  use  it,  or  to  know 
how  to  use  it  well  and  to  the  best  advan- 
tage, and  so  that  the  best  results  may  be 
accomplished  by  it. 

These  are  the  questions  to  which  I  will 
venture  now  for  a  while  to  direct  your 
thought  and  attention ;  or,  putting  the 
matter  more  plainly,  I  will  ask  you  in  this 
lecture  to  consider  with  me  the  question, 
"  How  shall  the  Christian  minister  pro- 
ceed to  make  the  parish  over  which  he 
presides,  to  the  utmost  possible  limit  and 
in  the  most  useful  way,  an  active  and  work- 
ing parish  ?  "  That,  of  course,  will  depend 
very  largely  upon  the  character  of  the 
parish,  what  it  is,  where  it  is,  and  how 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PARISH     205 

strong  or  weak  it  is.  A  parish  in  the  city 
cannot  be  worked  in  the  same  way  pre- 
cisely that  a  parish  in  the  country  can ;  or 
a  parish  in  one  part  of  the  city  or  country 
like  a  parish  in  another  part  of  the  city  or 
country ;  or  a  weak  parisli  like  a  strong 
parish;  or  a  rich  parish  like  a  poor  one. 
Parish  work  in  this  respect  resembles  pulpit 
work,  and  depends  upon  the  circumstances, 
which  are  not  the  same  in  all  cases,  which 
to  some  extent  indeed  are  different  in  all 
cases  ;  and  some-  of  the  methods  and  rules 
which  are  found  to  be  good  for  one  will  be 
found  to  be  bad  for  another,  or  at  least  not 
good  for  another  and  not  adapted  to  it. 
There  are  rules,  however,  which  are  good 
for  all,  and  applicable  to  all,  and  the  first 
of  these  I  have  already  intimated  in  say- 
ing that  every  parish  should  regard  itself 
as  unique,  in  its  duties,  its  difticulties,  its 
responsibilities,  and  should  not  try  to  copy 
any  other  parish,  as  every  preacher  is 
unique  and  should  not  try  to  copy  any 
other  preacher.  He  will  make  a  mistake 
if  he  does,  and  so  will  the  parish.  In  St. 
Bartholomew's  Parish,  for  instance,  we 
have  a  Loan  Bureau,  where  we  lend  money 
in  small  amounts  of  from  ten  to  two  hun- 


206      THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

drecl  dollars,  aggregating  about  fifteen 
hundred  dollars  a  week,  charging  a  fair 
rate  of  interest,  and  taking  as  security  a 
mortgage  upon  the  furniture  and  house- 
hold goods  of  the  borrower.  I  believe  in 
that  form  of  benevolence,  and  think  it  does 
great  good.  It  is  particularly  needed  in  a 
city  like  New  York.  And  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's Parish  was  able  in  part  to  supply 
that  need,  and  did  and  does  supply  it. 
But  it  is  not  particularly  needed  in  a  vil- 
lage like  New  Canaan,  in  this  State,  where 
I  am  in  the  habit  of  spending  my  summers. 
There  are  other  needs  there,  more  perti- 
nent and  imperative ;  and  for  any  parish 
there  to  undertake  to  start  a  Loan  Bureau, 
even  if  it  could,  would  be  a  misdirection 
of  energy.  The  thing  itself  is  good  and 
wise,  but  it  is  not  good  and  wise  in  all  cir- 
cumstances ;  and  whether  or  not  it  should 
be  attempted  will  depend  upon  the  circum- 
stances, the  circumstances  of  the  parish, 
and  the  circumstances  of  the  community 
in  which  the  parish  is  located. 

Or,  take  another  illustration  of  a  more 
general  character.  There  is  no  problem 
perhaps  in  this  country  more  pressing  and 
wide-spread,  and  at  the  same   time  more 


THE  PREACHER  AND   TUE  PARISH     207 

difficult,  than  the  drink  problem,  than  the 
problem  which  deals  with  the  traffic  and 
use  of  intoxicating  liquors ;  and  there  is  in 
my  judgment  no  greater  mistake  than  to 
try  to  solve  that  problem  in  the  same  way 
in  all  places.  I  am  satisfied  that  it  cannot 
be  solved  in  a  community  of  ten  hundi-ed 
thousand  inhabitants  in  the  same  way  that 
it  can  be  solved  in  a  community  of  ten 
hundred  inhabitants.  The  best  method  in 
one  case  is  not  only  not  the  best,  but  often 
the  worst  in  another.  And  the  reason  why 
in  America  we  have  made  so  little  progress 
towards  the  solution  of  it  is,  I  think,  be- 
cause we  have  failed  to  recognize  that  fact, 
and  have  tried  each  of  us  to  universalize 
his  own  method,  and  to  make  it  the  method 
always,  for  everywhere,  and  for  all. 

But  I  have  no  desire  at  present  to  dis- 
cuss the  Temperance  question,  or  to  stir 
up  strife  and  prejudice  on  that  vexed  and 
vexing  subject.  I  have  referred  to  it  sim- 
ply because  it  furnishes  in  my  judgment 
an  apt  illustration  of  what  I  am  trying 
now  to  show,  that  even  when  a  social  prob- 
lem is  everywhere  the  same,  the  method  of 
its  solution  is  not  everywhere  the  same ; 
and  that  what  is  wisest  and  best  for  one 


208      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

place  or  one  parish,  may  not  be  wisest  and 
best  and  expedient  for  another. 

This,  then,  is  the  first  rule  which  I  would 
venture  to  give  you  for  the  development  of 
a  parish;  and  wresting  from  its  connection, 
and  reversing  the  apostolic  injunction,  I 
would  say.  Let  every  minister  of  a  parish 
look  not  upon  the  things  of  others,  but 
upon  liis  own  things.  Let  him  look  with 
a  hard,  practical,  open-eyed  common  sense 
upon  his  own  parish,  upon  his  own  com- 
munity, its  circumstances,  its  conditions, 
its  needs.  Let  him  not  think  because 
some  particular  clergyman  in  some  particu- 
lar community  has  made  himself  conspicu- 
ous, and  deservedly  so,  in  some  particular 
kind  of  work,  in  the  work,  let  us  say,  of 
municipal  reform,  that  he,  the  clergyman 
in  some  other  community,  is  called  upon 
to  undertake  the  same  kind  of  work.  Let 
him  be  not  an  echo,  but  a  voice ;  for  while 
the  echo  may  be  just  as  loud  as  the  voice, 
and  sometimes  louder  and  shriller,  it  is 
nevertheless  an  echo.  It  is  chiefly  an 
amusing  thing,  and  will  certainly  not  ac- 
complish what  the  voice  accomplishes,  for 
the  voice  has  personality  in  it,  and  the 
echo   has   not.      Let  not    the   clergyman 


THE  PREACHER  AND    THE  PARISH     209 

tliiiik,  again,  because  there  is  in  some 
other  parish  a  flourishing  Blue  Ribbon 
Society,  or  a  Girls'  Friendly  Society,  or  a 
Clnristian  Endeavor  Society,  or  a  St.  An- 
di-ew's  Brotherhood,  or  a  Brotherhood  of 
St.  Andi'ew  and  St.  Pliilip,  that  that  is 
just  the  thing  wliich  he  must  start  and 
have  in  his  parish.  Perhaps  it  is ;  but 
perhaps  it  is  not.  He  must  determine 
that  for  himself ;  and  there  is  no  Board  of 
Control,  at  Boston,  or  Cliicago,  or  New 
York  Avhich  can  determine  it  for  him.  He 
knows  liis  own  parish,  or  ought  to  know  it, 
better  than  any  one  else ;  and  if  it  is  desir- 
able (and  it  is)  that  he  should  co-operate 
with  others  in  doing  some  large  and  gene- 
ral work  in  the  church,  or  the  nation,  or 
the  world,  it  is  also  desirable  that  he  should 
co-operate  with  them  in  his  own  way,  and 
that  those  who  have  the  management  of 
that  large  and  general  work  should  make 
its  rules  so  few  and  flexible  that  he  can 
co-operate  with  them  in  his  own  way  and 
according  to  the  differential  exigencies  of 
his  own  parochial  situation.  He  must  not 
be  trammelled  in  his  co-operation  by  alien 
and  inapplicable  rules.  He  must  be  free 
to  adopt  new  methods  wliich  have  not  been 
14 


210      THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

elsewhere  adopted.  He  must  be  free  also 
to  attempt  new  works  and  enterprises  which 
have  not  been  elsewhere  attempted.  There 
are  in  business  general  rules  which  business 
men  adopt,  and  which  they  observe  and 
practise,  and  that  is  right,  is  necessary ; 
but  they  are  not  enslaved  by  those  rules. 
And  the  successful  man  in  business  is  the 
man  who  sees  in  the  business  world  some 
new  thing  to  do  which  has  not  been  seen 
by  others,  or  which  at  least  has  not  been 
done  by  others ;  who  sees  it,  and  seizes  it, 
and  makes  it  yield  its  rich  and  fruitful 
bounty  to  him. 

As  it  is  in  the  business  world,  so  should 
it  be  in  the  parish.  Let  every  parish  learn 
as  much  as  it  can  from  others,  and  let  it  as 
far  as  it  can  co-operate  with  others  in  the 
work  of  the  Church  at  large.  And  yet  let  it 
not  forget,  and  let  not  the  man  who  guides 
and  directs  its  activities  forget,  that  while 
general  rules  are  good,  so  are  particular 
rules,  and  that  the  valuable  quality  in 
the  parochial  as  in  the  business  world  is 
not  the  quality  which  is  always  following 
precedents,  or  waiting  for  precedents  to 
follow,  but  the  quality  which  sometimes 
makes  them,  and  then  follows  its  own 
precedents. 


THE  PREACHER  AND  THE  PARISH     211 

Let  every  minister  then  study  his  own 
parish,  its  needs,  possibilities,  and  oppor- 
tunities, and  the  needij  and  opportunities 
of  the  community  in  which  it  is  phiced; 
prepared  to  unite  with  others  and  to  do 
what  others  do,  and  also  prepared  to  do  at 
times  something  new  and  peculiar  which 
others  cannot  do ;  and  thus  he  will  contrib- 
ute some  new  and  peculiar  force  towards 
the  regeneration  of  human  society  at  large, 
towards  the  establishment  on  the  earth  of 
the  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  Man. 

This,  then,  is  the  fu'st  rule  to  be  observed 
in  the  development  of  parochial  activity. 
It  should  be  a  form  of  activity  germane  to 
the  parish,  which  the  parish  ought  to  do, 
and  is  able  to  do. 

Now,  let  us  go  on  a  little  further,  and 
see  what  the  next  rule  is.  Here,  we  will 
say,  is  a  work  to  be  done  which  the  parish 
is  capable  of  doing ;  and  how  shall  the  man 
in  charge  of  the  parish  proceed  to  have  it 
done?  The  place,  let  us  suppose,  is  a 
manufacturing  or  mill  town,  with  a  good 
many  operatives  in  it ;  and  the  minister  in 
that  town  feels  that  he  and  his  parish  ought 
to  do  some  tiling  for  those  operatives,  for 
the   men   who   work   in  those  mills.     He 


212  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

thinks  it  would  be  a  good  tiling  to  estab- 
lish among  them  a  society,  a  guild,  a 
brotherhood,  a  club,  for  mental  and  moral 
advancement,  or  for  wholesome  recreation 
and  pleasui'e  ;  a  literary  society,  a  debating 
society,  an  athletic  society,  or  some  kind 
of  society  which  would  be  elevating  and 
improving,  and  wliich  would  tend  to  give 
its  members  a  more  abundant  life.  Assum- 
ing, I  say,  that  that  is  an  expedient  thing 
to  do,  what  is  the  first  step  to  take  in  the 
doing  of  it  ?  To  call  a  public  meeting  of 
the  people  of  the  parish,  or  of  the  people 
who  work  in  the  mills,  or  a  meeting  includ- 
ing both,  to  talk  about  and  discuss  it,  and 
listen  to  objections,  and  offer  resolutions, 
and  appoint  committees,  and  draw  up  a 
constitution,  with  articles  and  rules  and 
by-laws  ?  No ;  a  good  many  societies  have 
been  started  in  that  wa}^,  and  when  they 
got  started  they  stopped.  After  the  con- 
stitution and  the  by-laws  had  been  fully 
and  carefully  framed  there  seemed  to  be 
nothing  else  to  do,  or  at  least  nothing  was 
done.  The  societies  in  question  were  born, 
they  had  strength  enough  to  be  born,  but 
not  strength  enough  to  go  on  living  after 
they  were  born ;  and  having  a  constitution, 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PARISH      213 

but  not  the  riglit  kind  of  a  constitution, 
tliey  presently  collapsed  and  died.  What, 
then,  is  the  right  kind  of  constitution  to 
start  Avith  ?  Not  a  constitution  on  paper, 
however  elaborate  and  admirable,  but  a 
constitution  in  flesh  and  blood.  Let  the 
minister  who  wants  to  start  such  a  society 
as  I  have  indicated  start  with  that;  not 
with  by-laws,  but  with  a  man,  or  a  woman. 
Let  liim  try  to  find  some  one,  whether  man 
or  woman,  and  whether  in  or  out  of  the 
parish,  who  feels  about  the  matter  as  he 
does,  who  will  make  it  his  personal  work, 
or  her  personal  work,  and  will  devote  him- 
self or  herself  to  the  faithful  furtherance 
of  it.  Let  him  try  to  find  some  one  who 
has  not  only  the  time  for  it,  but  the  gift  for 
it,  the  capacity  for  it,  the  patience,  the 
courage,  the  enthusiasm.  Let  him  begin, 
not  with  the  establishment  of  a  society, 
but  with  the  establishment  of  a  person- 
ality, making  that  the  nidus,  the  liv- 
ing and  attracting  nidus  to  which  the 
society  will  come,  and  around  wdiicli  it 
will  gradually  gather,  and  strengthen,  and 
grow.  Then  after  a  while  he  can  make 
his  rules  and  by-laws  for  the  government  of 
the  society  when  he  has  a  society  to  govern. 


214      THE   PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

and  will  know,  not  from  a  doctrinaire  and 
theoretical  conjecturing,  but  from  a  practi- 
cal experimenting,  what  laws  and  rules  he 
ought  to  make,  and  what  he  ought  not  to 
make.  But  let  him  try  to  find,  first  of  all, 
the  right  kind  of  person  in  starting  his 
society.  Let  him  not  start  it  until  he  does, 
for  that,  I  am  satisfied,  is  the  way  to  start ; 
and,  started  in  that  way,  the  society  which 
he  starts  will  become  a  successful  society. 
There  will  be  in  it  a  personal  force,  and 
the  magnetism  of  a  personal  force  will 
draw  to  it  in  time  other  personal  forces ; 
and  the  people  of  the  parish,  seeing  it  going 
on,  will  be  more  likely  to  support  it,  and  to 
rally  around  and  help  it,  not  only  with 
their  approval,  but  also  with  their  money, 
as  far  as  they  are  able  to  give  it.  By  and 
by  they  will  boast  of  it,  and  be  proud  of  it, 
and  will  appropriate  it  as  their  own,  and 
speak  of  it  as  the  society  which  theij  started, 
and  as  the  good  work  which  thc)/  inaugu- 
rated, and  which  their  parish  is  doing.  And 
the  minister  will  be  pleased  to  hear  them 
talk  so,  and  will  encourage  them  so  to  talk, 
and  yet  will  know  in  his  heart  that  it  was 
the  one  resolute  man,  or  the  one  energetic 
woman,  standing  as  the  significant  figure 


THE  PREACHER  AND  THE  PARISH      215 

at  llie  beginning  of  it,  who  more  than  any 
one  else,  or  than  all  others  together,  has 
eontributecl  to  its  success. 

Now  that,  it  seems  to  me,  is  a  very 
important  rule,  and  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant in  the  development  of  parochial 
activity.  And  not  only  is  it  important  in 
the  development  of  parochial  activity,  but 
in  the  development  of  all  activity  of  a  use- 
ful and  wholesome  kind.  And  if  we  take 
any  one  of  the  great  movements  of  the 
world,  social,  political,  or  religious,  —  or 
any  one  of  its  great  institutions,  its  schools, 
its  academies,  its  hospitals,  its  benevolent 
societies,  its  missionary  societies,  its  tem- 
ples of  art  and  learning,  —  and  try  to  trace 
it  back  through  its  history  to  its  start,  we 
shall  usually  find  that  it  started,  not  with 
many,  but  with  one ;  that  it  started  as  the 
Bible  starts,  with  a  personality,  "  In  the 
beginning,  God ;  "  or  that,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Clnistian  Church,  a  personality  is  its 
corner-stone.  Nearly  all  the  great  and 
fruitful  activities  of  the  world  have  been 
started  in  that  way;  and  from  them  we 
may  learn  the  rule  to  be  observed  by  us  in 
our  parocliial  world.  Business  men  have 
learned  it,  and  the  first  concern  of  the  busi- 


216      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

ness  man  in  trying  to  develop  liis  business, 
or  in  trying  to  start  and  establish  some  new 
department  in  it,  is  to  find  some  suitable 
person  to  whom  he  can  give  it  in  charge, 
and  whom,  placed  at  the  head  of  it,  he  can 
make  responsible  for  it.  So  much  depends, 
he  knows,  upon  finding  the  man  to  begin 
with,  and  the  right  and  fit  man,  that  he 
will  not  begin  until  he  does  find  him.  And 
then  when  he  does  fuid  him  (except  for 
general  guidance  and  direction),  he  does 
not  interfere  with  him,  but  leaves  it  largely 
to  him,  if  not  to  plan,  at  least  to  execute, 
the  details  of  the  enterprise  which  has  been 
committed  to  him. 

This  leads  me  to  speak  of  another  rule 
which  it  would  be  well  for  the  clergyman 
to  adopt  in  the  development  of  parochial 
activity,  and  which,  if  not  like  unto  the 
one  which  I  have  just  mentioned,  is  at 
least  suggested  b}^  it.  And  that  other  rule 
is  tliis :  not  to  do  liimself  what  somebody 
else  can  do  as  well. 

It  has  doubtless  occurred  to  you,  while 
I  have  been  speaking  and  telling  you  that 
the  way  in  which  to  promote  and  develop 
some  new  parochial  adventure  is  to  find 
the  right  person  to  start  with,  tliat  that 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PAR/SU     217 

is  not  always  an  easy  thing  to  do.  It 
may  be  comparatively  easy  in  a  very  large 
parish,  which  has  the  constituency  of  a 
very  large  membership  to  draw  from ;  but 
most  parishes  are  not  large,  or  not  very 
large  ;  and  in  the  ordinary  parish,  however 
desirable  it  may  be,  or  however  necessary, 
it  is  not  always  easy  to  find  some  suitable 
person,  some  suitable  man  or  woman  with 
whom  to  begin  to  do  some  needed  paro- 
chial work.  And  surely  it  is  not  easy.  If 
it  were,  then  everything  would  be  easy, 
and  the  problem  of  parochial  activity  would 
not  be  much  of  a  problem.  And  yet,  de- 
spite the  greatness  of  the  difficulty,  it  is  not, 
I  am  convinced,  even  in  the  ordinary  par- 
ish, insuperable.  And  if  the  parish  clergy- 
man, instead  of  devoting  so  much  of  his 
time  to  the  doing  of  things  himself,  would 
devote  it  rather  to  the  finding  of  some  one 
else  to  do  them,  he  would  be,  I  think,  very 
often  —  of tener  than  he  supposes  before  he 
tries  —  successful  in  his  search.  That,  it 
seems  to  me,  is  what  he  should  have  in 
mind  in  visiting  in  his  parish,  and  in  try- 
ing more  and  more  to  become  acquainted 
with  it,  namely,  to  discover  individuals  in 
it  who  are  fitted  for  particular  things,  for 


218      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

particular  kinds  of  work,  saying  to  one 
and  another,  as  from  time  to  time  he  finds 
them,  here  is  sometliing  for  you  to  do,  and 
here  is  something  for  you^  and  you.  That 
is  his  parish  problem,  not  how  he  can  do 
all  things  himself :  he  cannot  do  them  all 
himself;  he  has  not  the  time  nor  the 
strength ;  nor  ought  he  indeed  to  do  them 
even  if  he  could.  His  work  is  to  set  others 
to  work,  and  to  be  active  in  making  them 
active.  And  if  he  tries  to  do  everything 
himself,  he  will  not  only  fail  in  the  attempt, 
but  will  also  fail  in  developing  the  activity 
of  his  parish.  And  that  is  what  chiefly  he 
is  trying  to  do :  not  simply  to  work  him- 
self, but  to  make  his  parish  work ;  and 
however  busy  and  industrious  he  may  be 
personally,  unless  he  can  thereby  make  his 
parish  industrious  and  busy,  he  will  not, 
and  cannot,  become  a  successful  parish 
worker.  There  are  some  clergymen,  it  has 
been  said,  who  are  forever  confounding  in- 
spiration with  perspiration.  It  is  a  homely 
plu-ase,  but  an  apt  one ;  and  the  confusion 
to  which  it  refers  does,  I  fear,  exist  in  the 
minds  of  not  a  few.  They  are  active  in 
moving  about,  and  in  making  parish  calls, 
and  in  doing  this  and  that,  and  going  here 


TUE  PREACHER  AND  TUE  PARISH     219 

and  there,  and  hastening  on  to  attend  to 
something  else,  with  but  little  time  to 
give  us  when  we  happen  to  come  across 
them.  They  always  seem  so  busy,  so 
breatlilessly  busy,  and  they  always  are  so 
busy ;  and  as  in  our  quieter  and  humbler 
spheres  we  stand  apart  and  look  at  them, 
the  words  of  the  apostle  will  somehow 
force  themselves  upon  us  and  come  into  oiu- 
minds,  that  "  bodily  exercise  profiteth  lit- 
tle." They  are  not,  at  least,  the  models,  so 
we  venture  to  think,  of  the  ideal  parish 
clergyman  who,  in  a  quieter  way,  with  less 
fussiness  and  more  thoughtfulness,  is  for- 
ever working  upon,  and  working  out  the 
problem  how  he  can  best  succeed  in  mak- 
ing his  people  work.  He  is  not  idle,  far 
from  it ;  he  has  much  to  do,  very  much  ; 
his  work  is  hard  and  exacting,  and  taxes 
all  his  strength.  But  it  is  the  work  of  one 
who  leads,  or  the  work  of  one  who  inspires, 
who  is  always  trying  to  find  the  right 
things  to  be  done,  and  the  right  persons  to 
do  them;  and  who,  when  he  has  found 
them,  trusts  them,  and  does  not  needlessly 
interfere  with  them,  knowing  that  people 
will  work  best  when  they  are  allowed  to 
work  in  their  own  way,  and  to  put  their 


220      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

own  personality  into  their  work.  It  will 
be  his  duty,  of  course,  to  suggest  and  plan 
the  work,  the  character  of  it,  the  scope  of 
it,  and  the  policy  for  the  workers  to  pursue. 
He  will  also  have  to  encourage  and  help 
them  in  their  work,  and  to  keep  himself  in 
touch  with  it ;  and  yet  he  will  let  them 
feel  that  it  is  their  work,  and  that  what 
they  can  do  as  well  as  he,  he  will  not  do, 
but  will  reserve  himself  for  the  doing  of 
what  they  cannot  do. 

I  have  referred  to  the  methods  adopted 
by  men  in  the  business  world,  and  that  is 
one  of  their  methods  :  not  to  do  themselves 
what  others  can  do  as  well,  or  well  enough, 
and  only  to  do  themselves  what  others  can- 
not do.  That  is  the  way  in  which  they 
are  able,  often  to  our  amazement,  to  accom- 
plish so  much.  They  have  learned  the 
secret  of  transferring  whatever  is  transfer- 
able to  agents,  to  clerks,  to  book-keepers, 
to  stenographers,  to  various  kinds  of  depu- 
ties ;  and  while  they  guide  and  direct  those 
deputies  and  clerks,  they  let  them  do  the 
work,  and  trust  them  to  do  the  work,  and 
expect  them  to  do  the  woik  which  has  been 
given  to  them  to  do.  It  is  a  good  rule  in 
the  business  world,  experience  has  proved  it 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PARISH     '2'1\ 

good ;  and  it  is  equally  good  in  llie  paro- 
chial. I  know,  indeed,  that  the  two  cases 
are  not  exactly  parallel,  and  that  we  cannot 
proceed  in  precisely  the  same  manner  in 
both.  The  vicarious  work  in  the  business 
world  is  paid  work,  and  if  it  is  not  done, 
or  not  done  well,  the  persons  intrusted  with 
it  can  be  and  are  dismissed ;  while  in  the 
parochial  world  the  work  that  is  done  by 
others  is  largely  gratuitous  and  voluntary, 
and  the  workers  themselves  in  consequence 
cannot  be  so  closely  and  strictly  held  to 
the  mark.  As  far,  however,  as  it  is  feas- 
ible, it  is  a  good  rule  to  adopt ;  and  the  best 
results,  I  am  confident,  cannot  be  developed 
or  obtained  in  the  parochial  world  until 
sometliing  like  it  has  been  adopted  there. 
A  little  work  can  be  done,  but  not  a  large 
work.  It  will  be  a  work  done  by  the  min- 
ister, and  not  a  work  done  hj  the  parish ; 
and  it  is  a  work  done  by  the  parish  which 
the  minister  wishes  done,  and  should  exert 
hiniself  to  have  done,  but  which,  of  course, 
by  the  parish  will  not  be  done,  nor  even 
attempted,  as  long  as  the  minister  tries  to 
do  it  all  himself. 

May  I  refer  to  my  own  experience  here, 
and  say  that  that  is  the  method  which  I 


222  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

have  found  it  necessary  to  adopt.  We  have 
in  St.  Bartholomew's  Parish  a  good  many 
departments  of  parochial  activity.  We  have 
not  only  our  Sunday-schools,  and  mission- 
ary societies,  and  benevolent  societies,  but 
a  Swedish  mission,  and  a  Chinese  mission, 
and  an  Armenian  mission,  and  a  SjTian 
mission,  and  a  lodging-house,  and  a  loan 
bureau,  and  an  employment  bureau,  and  a 
coffee-house,  and  a  penny  provident  fund, 
and  a  girls'  club,  and  a  boys'  club,  and  a 
men's  club,  and  a  gymnasium,  and  a  kin- 
dergarten, and  a  surgical  clinic,  and  a  med- 
ical clinic,  and  an  eye  and  ear  clinic,  —  but 
the  list  is  long  enough.  Now,  it  would 
liave  been  absolutely  impossible  for  me 
or  any  other  man  to  get  all  these  things 
started,  unless  I  liad  adopted  tlie  rule,  not 
simply  of  trjdng  to  do  things  myself,  but 
of  trying  to  find  others  to  do  them.  I  am 
in  touch  with  all  those  things,  and  try  as 
best  I  can  to  guide  and  direct  them.  And 
once  every  Aveek  I  have  a  conference  with 
the  heads  of  all  the  departments  of  parish 
work,  and  the  head  of  each  department 
makes  to  me  at  that  conference  a  weekly 
report  of  his  work,  and  we  talk  OA^er  the 
matter  together,  and  wind  things  uj),  as  it 


THE  PREACUER  AND   THE  PARISH     223 

were,  for  another  week ;  and  so  the  work 
goes  on,  and  there  is  but  little  friction  in 
it.  The  head  of  a  parish,  therefore,  like 
the  head  of  a  business,  if  he  would  have 
the  parish  do  its  largest  possible  work,  must 
learn  to  transfer  whatever  in  liis  work  can 
be  transferred  to  others,  and  must  not  do 
himself  what  they  can  do  as  well,  but  must 
only  do  himself  what  they  cannot  do. 
Even  then  he  will  find,  as  the  work  of  liis 
parish  grows,  that  his  hands  are  more  than 
full,  and  that  the  work  which  he  is  called 
upon  to  do  is  more  indeed  than  he  can  do. 

This  leads  me  to  speak  of  still  another 
rule,  which  is  like  the  rule  of  transference, 
namely,  the  rule  of  a  wise  and  a  judicious 
postponement.  I  do  not  know  who  said  it 
fii'st,  but  it  has  been  often  said  since,  that 
one  should  never  put  off  until  to-morrow 
what  can  be  done  to-day.  That  may  be  a 
good  rule  for  an  idle  man,  or  for  a  man 
who  is  disposed  to  be  idle ;  but  it  is  not 
good,  I  am  sure,  for  a  man  who  is  crowded 
with  work.  Such  a  man  must  learn,  not 
only  how  to  transfer  whatever  can  be  trans- 
ferred, but  also  how  to  postpone  whatever 
can  be  postponed.  For  even  when  he  has 
transferred  whatever  can  be   transferred, 


224      THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

there  is  often  still  a  residuum  left  which  is 
more  than  he  can  do  at  that  particular 
tiine,  and  he  must  make  another  transfer- 
ence, not  to  another  person,  but  to  another 
time.  And  from  the  various  things  which 
have  been  devolved  upon  him,  —  the  letters 
he  has  to  write,  the  calls  he  has  to  make, 
the  directions  he  has  to  give,  the  plans  he 
has  to  form,  and  the  activities  to  superin- 
tend, or  the  wheels  to  set  in  motion  and 
to  keep  in  motion,  all  of  wliich  that  day 
he  cannot  personally  do, — he  must  select 
those  tilings  which  are  that  day  most  urgent, 
and  wliich  cannot  well  be  left  to  another 
and  later  day ;  and  whatever  can  be  left  to 
another  and  later  day  must  be  so  left.  He 
^  must  learn  the  art  of  a  wise  and  judicious 
postponement,  not  because  he  is  lazy,  but 
because  he  is  very  busy.  It  is  an  art,  and 
the  busy  man  has  learned  it.  He  has  had  to 
learn  it ;  and  instead  of  not  putting  off  until 
to-morrow  what  can  be  done  to-day,  he  has 
found  from  personal  experience  that  it  is 
sometimes  wise  to  reverse  that  proverbial 
precept,  and  not  to  do  to-day  what  can  be 
put  off  until  to-morrow.  He  has  found, 
too,  from  experience  that  it  is  an  economi- 
cal rule,  and  that  a  certain  percentage  of 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PARISH    225 

the  work  he  is  called  to  do,  if  postponed, 
will  not  have  to  be  done,  or  will  somehow 
do  itself.  And  he  reckons  on  that  per- 
centage, and  counts  it  in  his  work,  or  rather 
counts  it  out,  —  he  discounts  it,  and  learns 
to  do  each  day  only  wliat  each  day  he  can 
do  and  ought  to  do,  or  ought  most  to  do, 
and  to  leave  the  rest  undone,  and  not  to 
worry  about  it.  And  not  worrying  aljout 
to-morrow,  he  will  be  better  prepared  for 
to-morrow  and  for  whatever  to-morrow 
brings,  and  will  sometimes  find,  wlien  it 
conies,  that  it  does  not  come  at  all  as  he 
supposed  it  would  come,  or  does  not  bring 
at  all  what  he  supposed  it  would  bring. 
Now  that  is  a  rule  for  the  man  who  is 
very  much  pressed  with  work,  for  the  very 
busy  man.  It  is  not  a  rule  for  the  man 
who  is  not  much  pressed  with  work,  wlio 
is  not  a  busy  man.  And  in  saying  that  it 
is  a  rule  for  the  clergyman  to  adopt  in  the 
development  of  parochial  activity,  I  take 
it  for  granted,  of  course,  that  the  clergyman 
is  a  very  busy  man,  a  man  pressed  with 
work,  and  pressed  for  time  in  which  to  do 
his  work.  If  he  is  that  kind  of  man  he 
will  learn  the  art  of  postponement :  expe- 
rience will  teach  it  to  him.  He  will  use  it 
15 


226      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

without  abusing  it:  not  with  a  view  to 
shirking  his  work,  or  to  letting  it  go  un- 
done, but  simply  with  a  view  to  the  better 
performance  of  it ;  and  he  will  know  what 
I  mean.  But  if  he  is  not  that  kind  of 
man,  he  will  not  know  what  I  mean,  or 
will  pervert  and  wrest  my  meaning,  and 
think  that  the  counsel  which  I  give  is 
neither  wise  nor  safe.  And  for  him  it  is 
not  safe ;  and  this  much  of  my  meaning  at 
least  I  should  be  glad  to  have  him  under- 
stand, that  I  do  not  mean  him,  and  that  in 
saying  what  I  have  said,  I  have  had  in  mind 
the  man  who,  to  the  utmost  of  his  capacity, 
and  without  sparing  himself,  is  trying  to 
make  the  paiish  for  which  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God  hu  has  been  made  responsi- 
ble an  active  and  working  parish.  And 
because  I  believe,  young  gentlemen,  that 
that  is  your  ambition,  I  have  ventured  to 
give  you  some  of  the  rules  which  I  have 
learned  from  experience,  and  wliich  in  my 
case,  at  least,  experience  has  proved  to 
be  helpful. 

What  are  those  rules  ?  Let  me  sum- 
marize them.  First,  you  should  study 
your  own  parish,  and  try  to  develop  in  it 
only  such   activity  as  it   is   fitted   to  do. 


T[IE  PREACHER  AND    THE  VARliill     227 

Second,  you  should  do  it  by  linding  the 
right  persons  to  do  it.  Tliird,  you  should 
transfer  what  you  can  transfer,  and  keep 
for  yourselves  only  what  is  your  personal 
work ;  and  foiu'th,  you  should  learn  in 
doing  your  work  the  art  of  a  wise  and 
juchcions  postponement,  doing  to-day  what 
you  can  do,  or  what  seems  to-day  most 
urgent,  and  then  without  fret  or  worry 
leaving  the  rest  undone. 

Let  me  add  two  or  three  counsels  more. 
In  the  development  of  parochial  activity 
do  not  go  too  fast.  Do  one  thing  well 
first,  get  it  well  started  and  established, 
and  make  a  success  of  it  before  you  start 
something  else ;  and  that,  when  you  have 
made  a  success  of  it,  will  suggest  some- 
thing else  to  start,  and  not  only  so,  but  will 
enable  you  the  better  to  start  it.  Your 
people  will  see  that  you  are  a  practical 
man,  and  a  wise  one,  and  that  what  you 
undertake  to  do  you  carry  through  and 
do.  They  will  be  more  likely  to  give  you 
their  confidence,  to  believe  in  you,  and  to 
help  you.  They  will  look  upon  you  as  a 
man  who  always  succeeds  in  his  work,  and 
and  they  will  contribute  to  your  success, 
and  success  will  lead  to  success,  and  to 


228  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

still  greater  success.  And  when,  from 
time  to  time,  you  make  some  new  pro- 
posals to  tliem,  they  will  feel  that  you 
at  least  know  what  you  are  about;  and 
your  opinion  will  be  their  opinion,  and 
your  judgment  their  judgment,  for  they 
will  have  had  experience  of  your  judgment, 
and  will  have  found  that  it  is  good,  and 
they  will  follow  where  you  lead. 

In  the  development  of  parochial  activity, 
therefore,  do  not  go  too  fast.  Make  one 
thing  a  success  before  you  start  something 
else,  and  you  will  find  in  the  end  that  that 
is  the  fastest  way. 

This  other  advice  I  give.  In  the  devel- 
opment of  parocliial  activity  you  will  need 
money,  —  not  much,  it  may  be,  but  some  ; 
and  the  money  which  you  need  must 
come  from  your  parishioners.  They  are 
the  persons  to  whom  you  will  have  to 
look  to  obtain  it ;  and  if  you  would  be  suc- 
cessful in  your  efforts  to  obtain  it  you 
must  inspire  them  with  confidence,  not 
merely  in  your  moral  character,  but  in 
your  business  character.  You  must  make 
a  report  of  the  money,  whether  much  or 
little,  which  from  time  to  time  they  give 
you,  and  which  passes  through  your  liantls  : 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PARISH     229 

not  with  a  view  to  showing  or  proving 
that  you  are  honest,  —  that  of  course  they 
do  not  question,  —  but  simply  because  it 
is  business,  and  you  are  dealing  witli  Inisi- 
ness  men  who  are  accustomed  to  that  sort 
of  thing,  and  who  in  the  business  world 
require  it.  They  may  not  require  it  of 
you  as  their  clergyman,  but  they  will  be 
gratified  if,  without  requiring  it,  they  re- 
ceive it.  And  when  as  business  men  they 
see  that  you  deal  with  money  in  a  practical 
and  business-like  way,  and  are  always  able 
to  account  and  always  do  account  for  every 
dollar,  for  every  cent,  that  has  been  in- 
trusted to  you,  it  will  be  not  only  a  satis- 
faction to  them,  l)ut  a  kind  of  satisfaction 
which  will  be  productive  of  liberality  in 
them,  and  chspose  them  to  intrust  you 
with  more  money. 

Be  careful,  then,  about  money  matters. 
You  cannot  be  too  careful.  And  when 
you  take  a  collection,  take  it  in  such  a  Avay 
that  the  people  will  understand,  not  that 
they  are  being  asked  to  give  to  something 
they  know  not  what  exactly,  and  simply 
because  it  is  a  custom  to  take  collections 
in  churches,  luit  to  something  they  do  know 
what,  which  you  have  made  them  know 


230      TEE  PREACHER  AND  11  IS  PLACE 

with  clear  and  full  knowledge.  Then 
when  you  have  taken  it,  be  particular 
always  to  account  for  it,  and  to  show  that 
it  has  been  used  in  the  way  you  promised 
to  use  it :  not  for  the  sake,  I  say  again,  of 
making  clear  your  integrity  in  the  matter, 
—  that  is  not  doubted,  —  but  simply  Ijecause 
that  is  the  business  way  to  proceed ;  and 
in  dealing  with  business  men  in  the  busi- 
ness aspects  of  your  parish  work  you  want 
to  be  business-like.  A  little  knowledge  of 
book-keeping  is  desirable  in  a  clergyman ; 
and  whether  he  handles  thousands  of 
dollars,  or  hundreds  of  dollars,  or  less,  it 
is  equally  desirable ;  and  tlie  clergyman 
who  keeps  an  account  of  the  money  which 
he  handles,  and  in  proper  times  and  ways 
reports  it  to  his  people,  will  not,  I  think, 
as  a  rule,  experience  much  difficulty  in 
obtaining  from  his  people  such  reasoniil)le 
sums  of  money  for  the  development  of 
parochial  activity  as  they  are  able  to 
give.  The  American  people  are  practical 
and  business-like,  but  they  are  also  gener- 
ous ;  and  when  they  believe  in  the  cause, 
and  when  they  believe  in  tlie  man  who 
embodies  and  pleads  the  cause,  they  will 
help  him  to  liis  heart's  desire. 


THE  PREACHER  AND   THE  PARISH     231 

And  now,  linving  said  all  of  this  lo  you 
al)out  your  parish  work  and  the  way  in 
which  I  think  it  ought  to  bo  done,  what  I 
have  said  would  be  incomplete  unless  I 
should  supplement  it  with  something  else. 
For  I  would  not  have  you  feel  that  in 
doing  your  parish  work  in  the  way  that 
your  parish  requires,  you  are  doing  only 
your  parish  work.  You  are  doing  a  work 
which  reaches  far  beyond  your  parish.  No 
man  can  live  to  himself  to-day,  and  no 
parish  can  live  to  itself.  Every  man  is 
related  to  every  other  man,  and  every 
parish  is  related  to  every  other  parish. 
And  it  is,  after  all,  not  our  parishes  merely 
tliat  we  are  trying  to  develop  and  build, 
it  is  the  kingdom  of  God  we  are  trying  to 
build.  Human  life  on  earth  is  not  many, 
but  one ;  and  to-day  we  are  beginning  to 
perceive  and  realize  that  fact  as  we  have 
never  perceived  and  realized  it  before. 
Barriers  between  the  people  still  exist  of 
course,  and  always  will  exist,  for  God  has 
made  men  different,  and  we  cannot  make 
them  alike.  Barriers  still  exist,  therefore, 
but  they  are  not  so  high  as  they  used  to 
be,  they  are  not  so  hard  to  get  over.  The 
"  demos  "  is  asserting  itself.  The  people 
are  coming  up  and  getting  nearer  together ; 


232      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

and  as  they  clasp  each  other's  hands 
stretched  across  the  boundaries,  and  heart 
beats  agamst  heart,  and  they  look  over  the 
walls  with  a  glad  surprise  into  each  other's 
faces,  they  are  astonished  to  see  and  fnid 
how  much  alike  they  are,  how  much  tliey 
have  in  common;  and  that  the  humanity 
which  unites  them  is  greater  and  more 
than  the  circumstance  which  divides  them. 
That,  I  say,  is  what  at  present  we  are 
beginning  to  realize  as  we  have  never 
realized  it  before.  We  are  beginning  to 
realize  as  never  before  that  the  true  field 
of  human  life  and  effort  is  not  that  little 
spot  of  earth  on  which  our  feet  are  stand- 
ing, —  the  village,  the  town,  the  city  in 
which  we  are  dwelling,  or  the  jjarish  to 
which  we  belong.  We  are  moving  to-day 
upon  a  larger  plane.  We  are  finding  our 
correlations  in  a  wider  sphere.  We  aie 
gathering  our  subsistence  for  heart,  for 
soul,  for  mind  as  well  as  for  body  from  a 
vaster  expanse  of  territory.  All  the  people 
to-day  in  all  the  world  are  thronging  us. 
What  we  think  is  going  far  beyond  us 
into  the  thought  of  the  world.  What 
we  do  is  going  far  beyond  us  into  the 
conduct  of  the  world.  The  individual 
touches    the    multitude;     the    multitude 


THE  PREACnER  AND   THE  PARISH     233 

touches  the  individual;  each  overflowinsr 
into  all,  and  all  flowing  back  again  into 
the  bosom  of  each.  Hence  it  is  that  people 
feel  to-day  there  is  nothing  so  out  of  place 
as  narrow-mindedness ;  nothing  so  galling, 
so  fretting,  so  hard  to  bear  as  provincialism ; 
because  they  feel  that  provincialism  is.  a 
wrong  accent  in  this  closing  decade  of  the 
nineteenth  century  life ;  and  that  the 
little  narrow-minded  man  who  takes  no 
interest  in  anything  except  what  he  is 
doing,  is  born  out  of  due  time,  and  should 
have  been  born  ten  hundred  years  ago, 
when  the  field  of  human  sympathy  and 
fellowship  was  more  in  correspondence 
with  his  little  narrow  thought. 

While,  therefore,  we  must  do  our  parish 
work  according  to  its  needs  and  opportuni- 
ties, and  in  the  way  that  it  ouglit  to  be 
done,  we  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be- 
come little  narrow-minded  clergymen,  tak- 
ing upon  us  simply  the  hue  and  complexion 
of  our  parochial  environment.  We  must 
try  to  realize  rather  that  the  field  in  which 
we  are  working  is  as  broad  as  the  world 
itself ;  and  that  while  in  our  several  par- 
ishes we  are  doing  our  pai'ish  work,  we 
are  at  the  same  time  doing-  a  work  wliich 


234  THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

is  more  than  our  parish  work,  and  which 
is  somehow  contributing  to  the  establish- 
ment on  the  earth  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
It  was,  as  you  know,  the  custom  of  the 
Roman  emperors  to  celebrate  with  their 
subjects  the  annual  feast  of  the  Terminalia, 
in  which  they  worshipped  the  god  Ter- 
minus, who  presided  over  the  boundary 
lines ;  but  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Clirist 
has  no  boundary  lines,  or  not  now  at  least, 
and  its  Terminalia  will  not  be  celebrated 
until  the  whole  wide  world  shall  have  been 
made  subject  to  Him  whose  temple  on  the 
earth  we  are  trying  now  to  build.  Not 
indeed  in  our  time  will  that  temple  be 
built ;  but  it  will  be  built  some  day,  and 
we  can  help  to  build  it.  And  if  the  angels 
in  heaven  can  somehow  see  and  rejoice 
over  penitent  sinners  here,  may  not  we 
perhaps,  somewhere  in  the  universe,  we 
know  not  where,  but  somewhere,  see  the 
structure  finished  which  we  have  helped 
to  build ;  and  mingle  our  voices  with  the 
shoutings  of  those  who  cry,  "  Grace,  grace 
unto  it  I "  when  the  headstone  shall  be 
brought  forth  at  last,  and  the  world  in 
which  we  are  living  now  shall  have 
become  the  Temple  of  God ! 


THE   PREACHER   MAKING   THE 
MOST   OF   HIMSELF 


THE   PREACHER   MAKING   THE 
MOST   OF   HIMSELF 

TN  approaching  the  end  of  this  course 
of  lectures,  in  which  I  have  been  try- 
ing to  tell  you  something  al^out  "The 
Preacher  and  His  Place,"  I  am  impressed 
very  strongly  with  the  feeling,  not  that  I 
have  said  what  I  ought  not  to  have  said, 
but  that  I  have  left  unsaid  so  much  that  I 
ouofht  to  have  said.  More  and  more  it  has 
been  borne  in  upon  me  that  it  is  impossible 
for  one  person  to  lay  down  rules  or  pre- 
scribe methods  for  another.  No  man  can 
tell  another  the  secret  of  himself,  however 
poor  that  secret  may  be,  for  the  reason  that 
it  is  even  to  himself  a  secret.  He  may  do 
things  fairly  well,  but  he  cannot  tell  how 
he  does  them,  or  he  can  tell  only  in  part, 
and  the  part  which  he  does  not  and  cannot 
tell  is  the  most  vital  and  important  part. 
I  remember  once  saying  to  a  very  gifted 
preacher  just  after  I  had  licard  him  preach 
one  of  his  inspiring  and  inspired  sermons, 


238      TBE  PREACHEE  AND  HIS   PLACE 

that  I  was  not  surprised  the  people  came 
in  such  great  crowds  to  hear  him,  and  that 
I  could  well  understand  why  they  came. 
"  I  can't,"  was  his  simple  and  modest 
answer ;  and  I  do  not  believe  he  could ; 
neither  could  I,  although  I  said  I  could. 
But  what  I  meant  was  this,  that  there  was 
a  great  and  helpful  attractiveness  in  his 
preaching  which  I  perceived  and  felt,  as 
did  everybody  else  who  heard  him ;  but 
what  that  attractiveness  really  was,  or  in 
what  it  consisted,  I  could  not  say  then, 
and  cannot  say  now.  Personality,  perhaps, 
would  express  it  as  much  as  anything  else. 
But  then,  again,  what  is  personality  ?  Or 
why  is  it  that  that  force  which  we  call  per- 
sonality is  so  much  more  forceful  in  some 
than  it  seems  to  be  in  others?  I  do  not 
know.  That  is  part  of  the  mystery  of  life 
which  cannot  be  explained.  Mr.  Ruskin 
says,  somewhere,  that  the  greatness  or 
smallness  of  every  person  is  determined 
for  him  at  the  outset,  just  as  it  is  deter- 
mined for  a  fruit  whether  it  shall  be  an 
apricot  or  a  pear.  And  that  I  presume  is 
true ;  and  as  far  as  it  is  true  the  individual 
himself  has  nothing  to  do  in  the  matter 
except  to  be  what  God  made  him,  or  except 


MAKING   THE  MOST  OF  HIMSELF       239 

to  become  what  the  God  who  made  him 
meant  that  he  should  become. 

But  how  may  he  become  what  he  was 
meant  to  become  ?  Here,  perhaps,  is  where 
advice  and  counsel  may  legitimately  come 
in,  and  where  the  suggestions  of  one  may 
be  helpful  and  useful  to  others.  And  in 
this  closing  lecture  I  will  try  to  tell  you 
how  I  think  the  preacher  can  make  the 
most  of  himself,  how  he  can  develop  such 
power  of  personal  force,  such  power  of  per- 
sonality as  may  be  potential  in  him,  and 
which  more  than  anything  else  will  make 
his  preaching  a  power. 

First,  however,  let  me  call  your  attention 
to  the  fact  that  it  is  not  easy  to-day  to 
develop  that  personal  force,  and  that  the 
constitution  of  modern  society  is  such  that 
instead  of  tending  to  make  jjersonalit}-  rich 
and  strong,  it  tends  sometimes  to  make  it 
poor  and  weak.  Let  me  show  you  what 
I  mean  by  the  help  of  illustration.  It  is, 
I  think,  Mr,  Herbert  Spencer  who  some- 
where says  that  there  is  an  antagonism 
oftentimes  between  what  he  calls  the  in- 
crease of  size  or  bulk  and  the  increase  of 
organism  or  structure,  the  one  growing  not 
infrequently  at  the  expense  of  the  latter. 


240      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

In  tlie  vegetable  kingdom,  for  instance, 
those  plants  which  grow  very  rapidly  in 
bulk  do  not  possess,  as  a  general  thing,  as 
mnch  strensfth  and  touq-hness  of  structural 
filjre  as  those  wliich  grow  more  slowly. 
They  are  not  so  vigorous  and  hardy ;  they 
have  less  power  of  resistance,  and  cannot 
encounter  so  successfully  the  adverse  influ- 
ence of  the  elements,  and  are  more  likely 
to  wither  and  die.  So,  too,  in  the  animal 
kingdom.  The  boy  who  grows  very  rapidly 
m  size  is  apt  to  become  weakened  for  a 
time  in  vital  force  by  the  precocity  of  his 
physical  development,  and  to  be  made  more 
liable  to  disease. 

Now,  what  is  true  of  existence  in  the 
animal  and  vegetable  kingdom  seems  to  be 
equally  true  of  existence  in  the  social  king- 
dom. The  size  of  life  in  our  time,  its 
physical  proportions,  so  to  speak,  have  been 
characterized  by  a  precociously  rapid  and 
unprecedented  development  and  growth. 
Our  extent  of  vision  to-day,  our  oppor- 
tunity of  action,  our  curriculum  of  study, 
our  range  of  influence,  our  sphere  of  sym- 
pathy, the  entire  circumference  of  our 
being,  by  reason  of  modern  invention  and 
skill,  has  been  most  wonderfully  enlarged. 


MAKING    THE  MOST   OF  HIMSELF        241 

The  life  of  the  whole  round  workl  lo-day 
is  huimiung  and  buzzing-,  shouting  and 
singing,  hiiighing  and  crying,  whispering 
and  thundering,  and  all  at  once,  its  story 
into  our  ears.  Yes,  and  more  than  that. 
By  spectroscope  and  telescope  we  of  this 
generation  have  been  carried  beyond  the 
society  of  this  earthly  planet,  and  intro- 
duced into  the  society  of  the  universe 
itself.  We  have  grown  so  in  size  that  we 
can  reach  out  and  touch  the  stars  ;  so  large 
and  giant  in  form  have  we  become  that  we 
can  take  them  into  our  arms,  resolve  them 
into  their  constituent  and  component  parts, 
and  weigh  them  in  our  scales.  And  yet 
this  rapid  development  of  our  life  in  social 
size  and  bulk  may  militate  against  the 
development  of  individual  organism  and 
structure,  —  the  great  power  of  society 
weakening  personal  force.  The  very  mul- 
titude of  our  opportunities  and  privileges 
paralyzing  our  action.  The  very  abun- 
dance of  our  pleasures  diminishing  our  joy. 
The  very  greatness  of  our  educational  ad- 
vantages dissipating  the  mental  force. 
There  are  so  many  books  to  read  to-day 
that  we  read  none  of  them  well.  There 
are  so  many  things  to  think  about  to-day 

16 


242  THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

that  we  are  in  danger  of  losing  the  power 
of  concentrated  thonght.  It  is  so  easy 
to-day  to  read  the  Bible  in  our  mother 
tongue  that  it  lies  on  the  taljle  neglected. 
It  is  so  easy  to-day,  in  comparison  with 
what  it  used  to  be,  to  go  to  church,  that 
we  don't  go.  The  house  in  which  we  live 
is  luxurious  in  its  appointments,  and  the 
life  that  we  live  there  is  so  often  sluggish 
and  dull.  The  church  in  which  we  gather 
to  worship  God  is  rich  in  its  splendor  and 
beauty,  and  the  worship  that  we  offer  there 
is  so  often  barren  and  dead.  The  school- 
house  splendid  and  the  scholar  dull;  the 
church  magnificent  and  the  worshipper 
drowsy.  Socially  becoming  stronger  and 
greater,  personally  weaker  and  less. 

We  are  told  to-day  that  the  genius  of 
the  drama  is  declining ;  that  the  power  of 
the  pulpit  is  waning ;  that  literature  is 
losing  its  originality  because  of  its  volumi- 
nousness ;  that  statesmanship  is  degene- 
rating; and  while  the  statement  is  not 
unqualifiedly  true,  it  has  enough  truth  in 
it  to  illustrate  how  the  great  development 
of  life  in  social  size  may  militate  against 
the  development  of  individual  structure, 
weakening   personal   capacity   and    force. 


MAKING    THE  MOST  OF  HIMSELF        243 

There  arc  so  many  things  going  on  in  our 
modern  workl,  so  many  oracles  of  wisdom 
chimoring  to  be  heard,  so  many  prophets 
prophesying,  so  many  preachers  preaching, 
so  many  critics  criticising,  so  many  voices 
of  one  kind  and  another  sounding  in  our 
ears,  that  we  feel  like  a  person  in  an 
overcrowded  drawing-room  at  an  evening 
party,  utterly  dazed  and  bewildered,  un- 
able to  speak  or  listen  to  anybody  coher- 
ently for  any  length  of  time  on  any  subject, 
or  to  give  forth  any  sound  having  sense 
and  meaning ;  stupified,  asphyxiated,  spell- 
bound by  the  great  chattering,  brilliant 
world  society  about  us. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  making  much  of 
individuals  to-day,  we  put  our  trust  in 
corporations,  in  institutions,  in  organiza- 
tions, in  machines ;  the  individual  man 
becoming  less  and  less  important,  shrink- 
ing into  smaller  and  smaller  proportions, 
gradually  going  down  into  the  depths  of 
obscurity  and  darkness,  drop})ing  out  of 
sight  and  mind.  The  corporation  every- 
thing, the  individual  nothing ;  socially 
great  and  strong,  personally  weak  and 
unimportant.  That,  I  sa}^,  is  a  tendency 
to  which  we  are  exposed.      Society  has 


244      THE  PREACHER  AND   JJIS  PLACE 

become  overgrown,  and  we  cannot  easily 
keep  up  with  it.  The  world  of  human 
interests  is  getting  to  be  too  big  for  us,  is 
developing  too  rapidly,  and  we  are  trying 
to  absorb  and  assimilate  so  much  in  our 
attempt  to  keep  up  with  the  times,  as  we 
say,  that  the  faculties  are  in  danger  of 
becoming  congested. 

How  may  this  danger  be  avoided  ?  How 
may  a  man  to-day,  in  spite  of  all  these 
antagonistic  tendencies,  make  the  most  of 
himself,  and  develop  to  the  utmost  his 
potential  personality?  I  answer,  first,  by 
a  fixed  and  steadfast  purpose  to  serve  the 
human  life  about  liim.  See  how  a  fixed 
and  steadfast  purpose  operates  in  one's 
life.  Two  persons,  we  will  suppose,  go 
on  'Change  together  at  some  great  com- 
mercial or  metropolitan  centre,  New  York, 
or  Cliicago,  or  Paris,  at  some  feverish 
crisis  in  the  market.  One  of  them  goes 
there  for  no  particular  purpose  ;  he  simply 
drops  in  as  a  stranger  visiting  the  city  to 
note  what  can  be  seen  and  heard.  And 
the  power  of  that  strange,  tumultuous  life, 
that  shouting,  and  screaming,  and  flinging 
of  arms  overhead,  that  hurried  and  feverish 
movement  to  and  fro,  as  though  all  Bedlam 


MAKIi\G    THE  MOST  OF  lUMSKLF        245 

had  broken  loose,  it  is  too  much  for  lihu. 
He  is  slupeiied,  dazed,  lost,  lie  seems  to 
be  ill  everybody's  way.  Everybody  else 
seems  to  be  in  his  way.  lie  is  tripping 
over  eveiybody.  Everybody  seems  to  be 
tripping  over  him,  and  he  is  in  danger  of 
being  crushed.  But  the  other  man  goes 
there  for  a  purpose.  There  is  somebody 
he  wants  to  see  there,  must  see ;  or  there 
is  business  of  a  particular  sort  that  he 
wants  to  transact  there.  He  has  stocks  to 
sell,  or  grain,  or  cotton,  or  wool  to  buy. 
He  goes  there  for  a  purpose,  and  the  power 
of  that  purpose  guards  him,  guides  him, 
steadies  him,  saA^es  him  from  being  cruslied 
and  overcome.  Well,  it  is  the  same  Avay 
in  the  broader  areas  of  life.  Go  out  into 
the  world,  and  live  your  lives  without  any 
fixed  and  definite  object,  and  the  bright 
glare  of  the  world's  great  society  will 
dazzle  you;  the  roar  of  the  world  will 
deafen  you,  perhaps  madden  you.  So 
many  things  there  are  you  could  easily  do 
if  you  wanted  to ;  so  many  things  inviting 
you  to  their  performance  ;  so  many  things, 
I  say,  that  you  could  easily  do  if  you  wanted 
to,  that  3^ou  do  not  do  any  of  them  ;  thus 
floating,  sinking,  gone  at  last,  having  ac- 


246      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

complished  little  or  nothing.  But  hold  up 
the  shield  of  a  purpose,  no  matter  what_  it 
is,  and  stick  to  it,  and  you  are  protected 
thereby  from  the  confusing  and  bewilder- 
ing noises  about  you.  The  roar  of  the 
battle  may  be  at  the  very  gate  ;  but  the 
voice  of  the  inspiration  of  the  purpose  that 
is  crying  in  you  is  louder  than  the  sur- 
rounding strife,  and  your  life  goes  straight 
on  with  your  purpose. 

Then,  further,  let  it  be  a  purpose  not  to 
be  ministered  unto,  but,  as  in  the  case  of 
Jesus  Christ,  to  minister  to  the  human  life 
about  you.  And  how  strangely  and  quickly 
will  all  the  best  forces  of  that  human  life 
about  you  give  themselves  to  you,  their 
beauty,  their  power,  their  life,  and  become 
incorporated  in  you,  become  as  it  were  you. 
They  will  take  their  crowns  and  crown 
you.  They  will  lift  you  up  and  exalt  you, 
and  give  their  blessing  to  you,  and  will 
help  to  make  you  all  that  you  are  cap- 
able of  becoming.  Is  it  not  the  same 
great  principle  which  we  see  operating 
everywhere  else?  '"Serve  me  long  and 
well,"  says  art ;  "  be  my  minister  first,  and 
then  some  day  you  shall  become  my  mas- 
ter."    "  Kneel  low  at   my  footstool  with 


MAKING    THE  .MOST  OF  HIMSELF        247 

patient  ami  reverent  liomaoe,"  says  the 
kingdom  of  nature  to  the  impiiiiny;  disci- 
ple, "  and  then  some  day  you  shall  sit  on 
my  tin-one."  So  does  the  world  of  liumaii 
life  about  you  seem  to  say  the  same  thing 
to  you.  "Take  your  life  and  live  it  for 
yourself  alone,  and  I  will  do  little  or  noth- 
ing for  you.  I  will  give  you  none  of  the 
enrichment  wherewith  I  am  enriched ;  and 
my  best  and  strongest  influences,  which 
would  help  you  so  much  to  come  to  your- 
self, you  will  never  know  or  reach.  But 
take  your  life  and  live  it,  not  for  yourself, 
but  for  me,  and  then  I  will  give  it  back  a 
hundredfold  unto  your  bosom  again,  and 
you  shall  thus  become  and  reach  your  best 
and  truest  self,  your  greatest  and  highest 
self."  Is  it  not  the  way  in  whicli  every- 
thing comes  to  itself,  —  not  through  itself, 
but  through  others?  Take,  for  instance, 
anything  you  please,  —  a  tree,  a  house,  a 
church,  this  church,  or  this  chapel,  or  some 
particular  object  or  feature  in  this  chapel, 
this  window,  for  instance,  behind  me.  Is  it 
a  thing  by  itself  ?  Apparently  it  is,  but  in 
reality  it  is  not.  How  did  it  come  to  be 
where  it  is  ?  Somebody  put  it  there.  Be- 
fore somebody  put  it  there  somebody  else 


248      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

made  it.  And  where  did  he  find  the  mate- 
rial ont  of  which  to  make  it?  He  found 
it  in  the  earth.  And  how  did  it  come  to 
be  in  the  eartli  ?  Bj-  a  long,  long  process, 
too  long  to  tell  about,  it  grew  there.  And 
Avhat  made  it  grow  there  ?  Heat,  and  cold, 
and  moisture,  and  summer,  and  winter,  and 
fire,  and  vapor,  and  snow,  and  friction,  and 
decomposition,  and  petrifaction.  It  came 
to  be  itself  not  by  itself,  but  tlu'ough  other 
things  outside  of  itself ;  and  except  for 
those  other  innumerable  tilings  outside  of 
itself  it  would  never  have  reached  itself. 
Its  personality,  so  to  speak,  would  never 
have  been  developed. 

And  that  is  just  as  true  of  human  nature 
as  it  is  of  inanimate  nature.  No  man  can 
reach  the  full  stature  of  his  personality  ex- 
cept through  others.  Living  alone  and 
standing  apart  from  others,  he  can  never 
show  what  he  is,  "  but  only  what  he  is  not." 
He  can  only  show,  as  some  one  has  said, 
that  he  is  not  a  friend,  or  acquaintance,  or 
companion,  or  comrade,  or  neighbor;  he 
exists  for  nobody;  and  presently,  to  his 
surprise,  and  generally  to  his  horror,  he 
will  discover  that  he  is  nobody.  The  peo- 
ple about  us  to-day  are  not  really  other 


MAKING   THE  MOST  OF  II I MH ELF        249 

people,  tliey  are  ourselves,  in  whom  we  be- 
come alive,  and  reach,  and  find  ourselves, 
and  in  whose  features,  masked  and  dis- 
guised by  suffering,  and  need,  and  igno- 
rance, and  foolishness,  and  want,  we  shall 
find  as  the  mask  is  lifted  the  features  of 
ourselves. 

There  is,  therefore,  no  more  effective  way 
in  which  a  man  can  develop  and  bring  out 
to  the  utmost  the  potential  force  of  per- 
sonality in  him  than  by  that  manner  of  life 
which  in  the  Christian  ministry  is  yours,  or 
which  is  in  theory  yours,  and  should  be 
yours  in  fact.  It  is  sometimes  said,  I 
know,  that  the  Christian  minister's  life  is 
a  ver}^  narrow  life  ;  and  so  sometimes  it  is. 
But  if  it  is  so,  it  is  not  because  it  ought  to 
be  so,  but  because  he  has  made  it  so.  Let 
him  steadfastly  maintain  in  his  ministry 
the  great  unselfish  purpose  of  his  ministry  to 
touch,  and  heal,  and  help,  and  in  some  way 
to  serve  the  human  life  about  him,  and  more 
and  more  will  that  human  life  give  itself 
to  him,  and  make  his  power  more,  his  per- 
sonality more.  It  is  not,  then,  young  gen- 
tlemen, a  little  and  narrow  calling  into 
which  you  are  going ;  it  is  the  biggest  and 
the  broadest  of  all  callings ;  and  a  calling, 


250      THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

too,  which  as  you  pursue  it  will  make  you 
big  and  broad.  With  a  heart  and  mind  and 
soul  open  on  all  sides  towards  your  fellow 
men,  you  will  acquire  that  most  effective 
of  all  forces,  personal  force,  and  which 
more  than  anything  else  will  make  your 
preaching  effective. 

And  yet,  wliile  all  this  is  true,  it  is  not 
the  whole  truth.  There  is  something  more 
to  be  said.  There  is  another  environment 
about  you  besides  the  human  environment, 
and  Godward  as  well  as  manward  you  must 
open  your  hearts  and  souls.  And  if  you 
are  to  become  the  highest  and  the  best  that 
you  are  capable  of  l^ecoming,  you  must 
learn  to  live  in  communion  with  the  highest 
and  the  best.  I  am  a  strong  believer  in 
prayer  as  a  factor  in  personal  development. 
And  the  men  who  have  been  the  great 
leaders  in  the  Christian  Church  in  the  past, 
and  whose  personality  has  contributed  much 
to  the  making  and  moulding  of  the  Church, 
have  been  men  who  prayed  much  as  well 
as  men  who  worked  much;  and  who, 
through  prayer,  were  made  patient,  and 
brave,  and  strong  in  work,  and  fitted  for 
their  work.  And  in  the  same  way,  young 
gentlemen,  must  we  be  fitted  for  our  work, 


MAKING   THE  MOST   OF  IlIMHELF        251 

tlirougli  tlie  quickening  power  of  i^rayer ; 
and  whatever  tends  to  weaken  coniidence 
in  prayer  tends  to  weaken  us,  and  to  pre- 
vent us  from  reaching  and  using  that  jiower 
of  personal  force  hy  whicli  ah)ne  we  can  do 
our  best  and  greatest  work.     It  cannot  be 
denied,  however,  that  there  are  tendencies 
to-day  which  seem  to  be  energizing  in  that 
direction.     We    meet    them    not   only  in 
others  through  reading  and  conversation, 
we  often  feel  them  ourselves;  and  some- 
times, indeed,  when  with   bowed  head  or 
bended  knee  we  are  engaged  in  the  very 
act  of   prayer,  the  thought  will  somehow 
suddenly  come   and   be  suggested   to  us. 
What  is  the  use  of  it  after  all  ?     Is  there 
any  good  in  prayer  ?     Is  there  any  reality 
in  it  ?     Are  we  indeed  speaking   into  the 
ear  of  God,  or  simply  articulating  into  the 
air?    Does  the   Lord   Almighty  hear  our 
prayer,  and  will  He  answer?     Or  are  we 
simply    repeating    and    mumbling     pious 
words  and  phrases  because  we  have  been 
taught   to  do  so,  whose  only  response  is 
their  echo,  and  not  even  that  ? 

It  may  not  be  amiss,  therefore,  if  in  the 
closing  part  of  this  closing  lecture  I  ven- 
ture to  say  something  to  you  about  these 


252  THE  PREACnER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

tendencies  which  seem  to  militate  against 
the  reality  of  prayer.  Most  of  them  might 
be  summarized  in  some  such  statement  or 
objection  as  this :  Nature  being  uniform  in 
its  working,  effect  following  cause  there 
with  an  unerring  regularity  of  sequence 
and  occurrence,  prayer  is  an  exercise  con- 
trary to  the  law  of  nature.  But  that,  it 
it  seems  to  me,  is  exactly  what  it  is  not. 
Prayer  contrary  to  the  laws  of  nature  ? 
What  nature  ?  Whose  nature  ?  It  is  not 
contrary  to  my  nature.  It  is  not  contrary 
to  your  nature.  It  is  not  contrary  to  human 
nature  in  general,  for  in  all  ages  men  have 
prayed;  and,  judging  the  future  by  the 
past,  as  long  as  human  nature  remains 
human  nature  they  will  continue  to  pray. 
It  is  the  one  thing,  indeed,  wliich  every- 
where we  see,  which  everywhere  we  hear, 
—  prayer :  in  all  lands,  among  all  peoples, 
in  all  conditions  of  life,  among  all  sorts  of 
men,  in  all  the  past  we  hear  it.  In  the 
song  of  the  Parsee  priest  on  the  top  of  the 
Persian  mountains ;  in  the  sound  of 
the  Mussulman's  cry,  l^reaking  forth  with 
the  sunrise  from  the  turret  stone  of  the 
mosque ;  in  Mohammedanism  ;  in  Buddh- 
ism :  in   Zoroasterism :    in  the  monotheism 


MAKING    THE  MOST  OF  HIMSELF        253 

of  the  Jew ;  in  the  militarism  of  the  Roman; 
in  the  fetichism  of  tlie  African,  —  the  voice 
of  prayer  is  heard.  And  the  spirit  of  prayer 
is  felt  breathing  through  the  hymns  to 
Indra  and  Varuna,  as  well  as  through  the 
Psalms  of  David  to  Jehovah. 

What  is  the  story  of  human  life  in  the 
past  but  the  story  of  religion?  and  if  of 
religion,  then  of  prayer.  It  is  the  story  of 
human  life  trying  to  come  to  itself  through 
a  power  outside  of  itself ;  and  to  somehow 
tell  itself,  its  deepest,  inmost,  secretest  self, 
into  the  listening  ear  of  some  sympathetic 
God.  And  not  only  in  the  story  of  the  past 
do  we  hear  it,  in  the  story  of  the  present 
we  hear  it.  The  voice  of  prayer  is  heard 
in  all  the  lands  to-day ;  among  all  the  peo- 
ple to-day ;  not  only  among  the  people  who 
call  themselves  religious,  but  among  the 
people  who  do  not  call  themselves  reli- 
gious, who  yet,  in  spite  of  themselves,  are  a 
little  religious  at  times.  They  cannot  keep 
God  out  of  their  thought.  They  cannot  keep 
God  out  of  their  speech.  The  instinct  of 
God  is  in  them,  and  they  cannot  get  rid  of  it. 
And  that  instinct  of  God  which  is  in  them 
carries  with  it  the  instinct  to  appeal  at 
times  to  God.    And  they  do  appeal  to  God ; 


254      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

not  always  reverently,  sometimes  profanely, 
using  His  name  as  a  name  with  which  to 
curse  and  swear.  But  what  is  cursing  and 
swearing  but  the  instinct  in  them  of  prayer, 
of  appeal  to  God,  gone  mad,  because  tlicy 
have  gone  mad  and  angr}^  for  a  moment; 
the  instinct  in  them  of  prayer  blasphe- 
mously expressed.  It  is  an  irrepressible, 
an  ineradicable  instinct.  It  shows  itself  in 
Avrath,  in  anger,  in  love,  in  fear,  in  danger, 
in  death,  in  the  sudden  escape  from  dan- 
ger, in  the  sudden  exemption  from  death, 
Avlien  involuntarily  they  are  moved  to  say 
and  can't  help  saying,  "  Thank  God !  "  as 
though,  somehow,  He  did  it,  and  they  feel 
and  know  He  did  it.  Or,  when  touched 
with  some  emotion,  some  deep  and  strong 
emotion  beyond  the  common  want,  of  glad- 
ness or  of  joy,  which  they  know  not  how 
to  express  or  how  to  others  to  tell  it,  or 
how  with  others  to  share  it,  the  heart  goes 
up  to  God  as  though  it  would  share  it  with 
Him,  and  would  say  to  Him,  *'  Oh,  see,  as 
no  one  else  can  see,  my  gladness  and  my 
joy !  "  Or  when  in  some  hour  of  need, 
confronting  some  difficult  or  perilous 
task  which  they  have  not  strength  or 
energy   to   perform,   and   yet  Avhich   they 


MAKING   THE  MOST  OF  HIMSELF        255 

must  perfoini,  without  any  human  guid- 
ance and  without  any  human  aid,  treading 
the  winepress  all  alone  in  darkness  and  in 
weariness,  with  none  to  help  or  understand, 
or  bring  deliverance  to  them,  and  the  cry 
goes  up  to  God  for  help,  and  the  appeal  to 
God  is  made  ! 

Prayer  contrary  to  the  laws  of  nature? 
Why  it  is  a  law  of  natiu-e,  of  human  na- 
ture at  least,  which  lives,  and  breathes, 
and  moves,  and  has  its  being  in  prayer; 
which  is  forever,  reverentl}^  or  irreverently, 
sacredly  or  profanely,  silently  or  vocally, 
somehow  appealing  to  God ;  swearing  in 
His  name,-  protesting  in  His  name,  testify- 
ing in  His  name,  deprecating,  imprecating, 
expostulating  in  His  name  ;  forever  carrj-- 
ing  up  its  great  case  in  equity  to  God  as 
unto  its  highest  and  ultimate  Court. 

Contrar}-  to  the  laws  of  nature  ?  Why, 
more  than  anything  else  it  is  our  nature. 
It  ripples  through  all  our  laughter,  which 
is  in  its  last  analysis  but  the  breaking  fortli 
for  a  moment  of  the  imprisoned  spirit  tr}'- 
ing  to  reacli  and  touch  the  glad  surprise  of 
some  unknown  life.  It  ripples  through  all 
our  laughter,  it  shines  through  all  our 
tears ;   it  shows  itself   in  our  weaknesses. 


256      THE  PREACHER   AND  HIS  PLACE 

makes  stronger  our  strengths,  and  quickens 
within  us  the  dream  of  some  ideal  life,  not 
seen  as  yet,  but  believed  in,  towards  wliich 
we  now  press  on,  towards  which  we  now 
aspire  as  the  home  of  the  soul  in  God.  In 
human  nature,  at  least,  I  say,  there  is  no 
other  law  so  imperiously  dominant,  so  su- 
premely transcendent,  so  universally  preva- 
lent as  the  instinct  in  us  of  prayer;  and 
we  can  no  more  get  rid  of  it  than  human 
nature  can  get  rid  of  human  nature. 

Now  let  us  go  on  a  little  farther.  What 
is  human  nature?  What  is  our  physical 
science  to-day  declaring  our  human  nature 
to  be?  Where  does  our  physical  science 
to-day  say  it  originated  and  came  from? 
You  know  what  it  has  to  say  upon  that  point. 
Human  nature,  it  says,  is  all  of  a  piece  and 
one  with  all  the  rest  of  nature  :  one  organ- 
ism, one  growth,  one  development ;  just  as 
the  growth  of  the  plant  is  one,  from  the 
seed  where  it  starts  to  the  blossom  where 
it  ends ;  as  the  growth  of  the  tree  is  one, 
from  the  root  below  the  ground  to  the  fruit- 
age and  foliage  above.  So  is  nature  all  of 
a  piece,  and  one  ;  from  the  nature  far  down 
and  below,  wliich  is  not  human,  to  the  na- 
ture far  up  and  above,  which  is  human.     It 


MAKING   THE  MOST  OF  HIMSELF       257 

is  all  one  growth,  throiigli  protoplasm,  and 
niolecule,  and  mist,  and  star-dust,  and  rock, 
and  mineral,  and  vegetable,  to  man ;  one 
growth,  one  organism,  one  development,  all 
of  a  piece.  Now,  without  entering  upon  a 
discussion  of  the  merits  of  that  theory,  let 
us  assume,  if  you  please,  that  it  is  true, 
that  man  has  been  evolved  by  a  long  process 
of  development  out  of  a  molecule,  or  a  pro- 
toplasm, or  a  lump  of  clay.  Will  it  be 
maintained,  can  it  be  maintained,  that  the 
lump  of  clay  out  of  which  he  came,  enters 
more  essentially  with  its  laws  and  tenden- 
cies into  the  constitution  of  things,  than  the 
human  being  with  his  laws  and  tendencies 
who  came  out  of  the  lump?  "Is  that 
a  consistent  science  which  maintains  that 
man  is  to  be  included  within  the  scope  of 
nature,  and  then  excludes  him  from  the 
scope  of  nature  in  trying  to  ascertain  what 
are  the  laws  of  natui'e  ?  "  If  man  be  part  of 
it  all,  connected  with  it  all,  related  to  it  all, 
then  why  should  he,  the  highest,  biggest, 
best  part,  in  trying  to  interpret  nature,  be 
tlu'own  out  of  the  count  ?  And  if  the  ten- 
dency to  pray  be,  as  from  the  induction  of 
all  human  life  it  seems  to  be,  an  essential 
part  of  his  Ijeing,  an  essential  law  of  his 
17 


258      THE  PREACHER  AND   HIS  PLACE 

being,  why  is  it  not  just  as  much  a  hiw  of 
nature,  as  the  law  which  binds  the  planets 
in  their  course,  or  makes  the  earth  to  turn 
to-day,  or  the  sun  to  shine  to-day  ? 

"  The  reality  of  a  growing  thing,"  some 
one  has  wisely  and  truly  said,  "  the  reality 
of  a  growing  thing  is  in  its  highest  form 
of  gi'owth ;  "  the  last  explains  the  first,  not 
the  first  the  last.  And  the  highest  form 
of  growth  in  this  growing  universe,  if  it 
is  a  growing  universe,  is  man,  with  the 
sjjiritual  instinct  in  his  heart  to  pray. 

But  then  it  is  said  that  that  spiritual 
instinct  of  prayer  must  be  confined  to 
spiritual  things.  Possibly  so.  But  who 
has  a  metaphysical  scalpel  or  blade  that 
is  sharp  enough  and  keen  enough  to  draw 
the  line  of  demarcation  between  them,  and 
tell  us  where  spirit  in  its  influence  on 
matter  ends,  and  matter  in  its  influence  on 
spirit  begins  ?  It  cannot  be  done.  Spirit- 
ual things  and  material  things  cannot  be 
separated.  They  move  and  go  together; 
here  and  now,  at  least,  they  stand  or  fall  to- 
gether. Patience  is  a  spiritual  thing,  as  are 
love,  hope,  faith  ;  but  they  rest  on  a  physi- 
cal basis,  and  are  largely  determined  by 
physical  facts  and  conditions.    Good  temper 


MAKING    THE  MOST  OF  HIM  SELF        250 

is  a  .spiritual  thing;  but  good  temper  is 
somewhat  determined  b}^  good  digestion. 
The  soft  answer  thatturneth  away  wratli  is 
a  S2)iritual  thing ;  but  the  soft  answer  that 
turneth  away  wrath  is  not  so  easily  spoken 
when  we  are  weak  and  tired,  and  the  nerve 
force  is  exhausted,  and  all  the  nerves  seem 
to  be  out  on  the  surface  scintillating 
sparks,  as  when  we  are  strong  and  well. 
Spiritual  forces  are  closely  correlated  with 
ph}-sical  forces.  If  we  are  to  pray  only 
for  spiritual  things,  how  shall  we  know 
what  to  pray  for  and  what  not  to  pray 
for  ?  If  we  are  to  pray  only  for  spiritual 
things  and  not  physical,  which  are  so 
mixed  up  with  them,  how  can  we  pray  at 
all  ?  And  yet  is  it  not,  after  all,  futile  to 
pray  for  physical  things?  A  shower  of 
rain,  for  instance,  is  the  product  of  certain 
atmospheric  agencies,  which  make  a  shoAvcr 
of  rain  inevitable.  Or  the  death  of  an  in- 
dividual, again,  is  the  consequence  of 
cei-tain  pathological  and  physiological  con- 
ditions which  render  his  decease  as  sure 
as  the  rising  or  setting  of  the  sun.  And 
can  we  hope  by  prayer  to  change  the  whole 
course  and  constitution  of  the  world 
of  physical  nature  ?      I  do  not  know ;  all 


260      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

I  know  is  this,  and  this  1  do  know,  that 
it  woukl  be  to  change  the  whole  course 
and  constitution  of  the  workl  of  human 
nature  if  we  did  not  pray.  And  upon  that 
world  of  human  nature,  which  is  said  to 
have  come  out  of  all  the  rest  of  nature,  to 
be  its  blossomed  outgrowth,  —  upon  that 
world  of  kuman  nature,  witk  tke  instinct 
in  it  of  prayer,  we  take  our  stand  and 
pray,  and  leave  results  to  Him  wko  is 
greater  and  wiser  tkan  we,  and  wko  has 
made  it  a  law  of  our  being,  a  law  of  natui-e, 
to  pray. 

Now,  I  kave  said  all  tkis,  young  gentle- 
men, because  I  want  you  to  feel  kow  right, 
kow  reasonable,  is  prayer;  and  tkat  you 
are  not  turning  aAvay  from  tke  ligkt  of 
nature  as  modern  knowledge  reveals  it  to 
you  wken  you  turn  towards  tke  ligkt  of 
Clirist.  And  because,  furtker,  I  would 
deepen  in  you  tke  conviction  wliick  I  am 
sure  you  already  kave,  tkat  it  is  only  by 
tke  opening  up  of  your  keart  and  soul,  not 
only  towards  tke  kuman,  but  towards  tke 
tUvine  environment  of  your  lives,  tkat  you 
can  reacli  tke  full  stature  of  your  personal 
development  and  make  tke  most  of  your- 
selves.     Let  God  make  you  strong,  and 


MAKING   THE  MOST  OF  HIMSELF        261 

then  you  arc  strong'  with  a  strength  that 
will  prove  itself  so  often  to  be  an  invincible 
strength,  and  which  opposition  and  difli- 
culty  will  only  more  fully  bring  out.  Do 
you  remember  the  story  that  Browning 
tells  of  the  tyrant  who  tried  to  crush  one 
of  his  weak  and  apparently  defenceless 
subjects  ? 

"  So  1  soberly  laid  my  last  plan 
To  extinguish  the  man. 
Round  his  creep-hole  with  never  a  break 
Ran  my  tires  for  his  sake. 
Overhead  did  my  thunders  combine 
With  ray  underground  mine, 
Till  I  looked  fi'om  my  labors  content 
To  enjoy  the  event, 
When  suddenly,  how  think  ye  the  end? 

The  man  sprang  to  his  feet, 

Stood  erect,  caught  at  God's  skirts  and  prayed, 

So  I  was  afraid." 

Ah,  yes,  it  is  then  that  the  man  springs 
to  his  feet  and  stands  erect  and  strong  in 
the  full  stature  of  his  manhood,  when 
prayer  becomes,  not  merel}^  a  form  or  phrase, 
but  a  living  reality  to  him,  and  when, 
through  prayer,  he  reaches  out  and  touches 
the  skirts  of  God,  and  God  becomes  a 
living  reality  to  him. 


262      THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  PLACE 

How,  then,  in  trying  to  tell  you  some- 
thing about  the  preparation  of  yourselves 
for  that  great  work  to  which  you  have 
devoted  yourselves  could  I  dare,  even  at 
the  risk  of  seeming  to  preach  to  you  a 
little,  leave  unsaid  that  which  I  have  said, 
and  which,  although  I  have  said  it  last,  is 
in  importance  first  ?  Never  let  your  work 
come  between  you  and  God.  You  will  be 
tempted  to  do  so  at  times ;  but  do  not  yield 
to  the  temptation.  Let  nothing  come  be- 
tween you  and  God ;  for  it  is  as  men  of 
God  that  you  go.  Men  of  God!  Think 
how  much  that  means,  or  how  much  it 
ought  to  mean.  It  is  as  men  of  God  that 
you  go  out  into  the  world  among  your 
fellow-men,  with  fixed  and  steadfast  pur- 
pose to  serve  your  fellow-men.  Thus,  and 
only  thus,  laying  hold  on  God,  will  you 
become  in  a  measure  the  incarnation  of 
God,  His  quickening  power  and  life  flow- 
ing into  3^our  souls.  Thus,  and  only  thus, 
with  a  fixed  and  steadfast  purpose  to  serve 
your  fellow-men,  will  you  become  the 
embodiment  of  your  fellow-men,  and  what 
is  highest  and  best  in  them  will  be  ex- 
pressed in  you.  And  becoming  thus  in 
yourselves  the  most  that  you  can  become, 


MAKING    THE  MOST   OF  HIMSELF       263 

and  luiviiig  a  personality  strengthened  and 
enriched  both  by  man  and  God,  by  the 
whole  environment  of  your  lives,  the  human 
and  the  divine,  will  you  most  effectively 
do  what  He,  who  was  on  earth  both  Son 
of  iNlan  and  God,  has  sent  you  forth  to 
do. 


THE  EJSTD. 


Date  Due 

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